Greenhouse Harvest Worker

You cut fruit with shears into the crate, keep the picked row clean and move full crates to the trailer at the head of the row. Between harvest days the work is trellising and lowering the plants, removing side shoots and leaves, and setting the bumblebee hives with the technician. In the packhouse you grade by size and colour on the belt, weigh the punnets and close the boxes with the batch label. Hours are 07:00-15:00 in the campaign, and the foreman moves the crew between the harvest and the packing line.

No formal schooling required, the holding trains new hands

Fit for eight hours of bending and reaching in a warm greenhouse

Careful hands, export fruit is rejected for bruising

Willing to work Saturdays during the harvest peak

Basic English or Spanish for the daily briefing

Comfortable in heat above 30 degrees, water and shade are provided

Net salary from 1143 up to 1257 EUR per month

Seasonal contract for the full campaign from September to June

Hours logged under the agrarian convenio, extra hours paid at the peak

Fourteen instalments a year, the two extra ones prorated into the monthly net

Shared accommodation near El Ejido at 120 EUR a month

Transport from the village to the greenhouse every morning

Gloves, shears, hat and a rain cape provided by the holding

Pickers who learn grafting and the irrigation head move to the technical crew, which works the whole year, and the grower pays the course for the plant protection handler card.

Multi tunnel greenhouses with roof vents and a shaded packhouse next to the loading dock. Gloves, hat and closed shoes are mandatory, water points sit at every second row and the crew rests in a cooled room.