With picking season just around the corner and a shortage of workers in the fields, the Portuguese Farmers’ Confederation (CAP) says an “online job platform” should be created to allow those who have been laid off to apply for farming jobs.
The idea has been pitched by the confederation’s leader Eduardo Silva e Sousa in an interview with Público newspaper.
“We won’t set up a scheme like this without the approval of the government because public health is at stake, but agriculture doesn’t stop,” he told the paper.
The plan is to create online job offers, similar to those that have already been created in Germany and France, in a bid to promote the openings among workers who have lost their jobs or have seen their contracts suspended under the government’s new simplified lay-off regime.
CAP admits that Portugal’s lockdown has made it “harder to hire foreigners” for agriculture jobs, which is why it hopes the online platform could help find workers for the upcoming harvest season.
“We see potential in this proposal, but first we need to talk to the agriculture, economy and employment ministries,” he added.
