Corona crisis: harvest workers are coming

Florian Tiefenböck studied human medicine at the LMU Munich. In March 2014, he joined as a student and has supported the editorial team with medical articles ever since. After receiving his medical license and practical work in internal medicine at the University Hospital Augsburg, he has been a permanent member of the team since December 2019 and, among other things, ensures the medical quality of the tools.

More posts by Florian Tiefenböck All content is checked by medical journalists.

Shortly before the asparagus harvest, the federal government finds a solution: Despite general entry bans, seasonal workers are allowed to come - but only under strict conditions. This includes, for example, entry by plane, health checks on arrival and working in quarantine. Despite the many rules, the farmers' associations welcome the decision.

Harvest workers by plane

In view of the threat of bottlenecks in agriculture, a total of 80,000 foreign seasonal workers are to be flown to Germany under strict conditions. 40,000 people can come each April and May to help with harvesting and other urgent field work.

In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture wants to attract 10,000 helpers from within Germany. They rely on the unemployed, students, asylum seekers or short-time workers. Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) and Agriculture Minister Julia Klöckner (CDU) agreed on this on Thursday. According to Klöckner, this pragmatic solution is important and good news for farmers. "Because the harvest does not wait, and sowing cannot be postponed."

In order to prevent the corona virus from spreading rapidly in Germany, the Ministry of the Interior had imposed extensive entry restrictions for seasonal workers. This mainly affected helpers from Romania. By the entry stop on March 25th, around 20,000 seasonal workers were already in the country - they can stay here longer after changes in labor law have already been decided.

However, the need is much higher. Therefore, exceptions to the entry restrictions have now been agreed and numerous accompanying conditions have been established.

Strict conditions

Specifically, the workers should only enter in groups and by plane. The aim is to avoid hours of bus journeys across Europe. The harvest workers should be selected based on feedback from the farmers. The federal police, in turn, in coordination with the farmers' associations, determine at which German airports they will land. The respective farm should collect them there. A health check is also carried out upon entry, and the results are sent to the local health department.

Working in quarantine

New arrivals have to live and work strictly separated from other employees for the first 14 days.You are not allowed to leave the company premises. The government speaks of a "de facto quarantine with simultaneous work opportunity". There is a mandatory division into accommodation and work teams, so that the seasonal workers work in the same, as small as possible groups of five to ten, a maximum of 20 people. Minimum clearances must also be observed.

With the exception of families, rooms in accommodation should only be able to be occupied with half the capacity. Laundry and dishes must be cleaned at at least 60 degrees. Common rooms such as kitchens may never be used by individual groups of workers at the same time. Visitors are also prohibited on the company premises.

Regular checks

Compliance with the rules should be checked by the responsible occupational health and safety authorities and customs. The conditions are based on the guidelines of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). If there is a well-founded suspicion of infection, the employee must be isolated and a doctor must test him and the entire team.

Demand remains high

From the point of view of FDP parliamentary deputy Frank Sitta, the regulation brings "a first relief". The question arises, however, why a rigid upper limit is still being set. According to industry estimates, the need for experienced seasonal workers from abroad is much higher - otherwise almost 300,000 seasonal workers come to Germany each year.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Agriculture Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser also hopes for domestic helpers: "Furthermore, volunteers with free capacities are called upon to support agriculture and to help ensure that we keep regional diversity on our plates despite the Corona crisis".

Planting work is currently underway for salads, cabbage and many other vegetables. In addition, asparagus, rhubarb, salads, strawberries and cucumber are harvested.

Farmers are happy

The German Farmers' Association (DBV) welcomed the agreement reached by the federal government. DBV President Joachim Rukwied said that once the agreement had been reached, it would now be time to implement it. “Our operations will strictly adhere to the guidelines and requirements of the RKI in order to keep the risk of infection as low as possible. This regulation helps us to remain able to work. "

Regional farmers' associations were also relieved by the relaxation of the previous regulations. "We are glad that we found a solution," said the managing director of the Saxon State Farmers' Association (SLB), Manfred Uhlemann. The head of the fruit growers' association, Udo Jentzsch, explained: "We hope that with all these regulations we can bring in our harvest quite well."

Do you want to help with the harvest?

In addition, in some places the farmers' associations have already reported numerous volunteers, mostly schoolchildren, students, short-time workers, the unemployed or pensioners. If you also want to support the harvest, you can find out more and register at www.daslandhilft.de. The nationwide job exchange for harvest workers started on Monday and is an initiative of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. (ft / dpa)

Tags:  travel medicine Baby Child palliative medicine