‘Brexit’ drop in foreign laborers hits Britain

FORDOUN, Scotland — The first inkling that Ross Mitchell knew something had gone awry was when a busload of Bulgarians he had hired to pick blueberries last month failed to appear.

The way he saw it, they had been “hijacked.”

The real explanation was rather more prosaic but no more palatable: During a one-night stopover in Birmingham, a city on the way to Mitchell’s farm in northern Scotland, the 30 Bulgarians were lured by a factory offering more attractive wages. They never made it to their original destination.

The diversion of his workforce meant that Mitchell, a fruit supplier for a major supermarket chain in Britain, lost 50 tons of fruit worth half $680,000 in a matter of weeks.

Mitchell is not alone in his distress. Similar anecdotes have been reported by a wide range of employers, notably the National Health Service and the hospitality sector.

It is a phenomenon tied to Britain’s decision last year to leave the European Union, a process known as Brexit. Since then, thousands of Europeans have already left Britain or have decided not to return, causing a significant drop in migration to the country. Net migration in the year that ended in June fell by 106,000, about a third, the government said, “the largest fall in any 12-month period since records began in 1964.”

Hospitals are struggling to hire doctors and nurses. British universities are failing to attract foreign academics and students. Bankers are looking for jobs in Germany and France. The construction sector last month warned that British infrastructure faces “severe setbacks” if the country does not train enough workers to stem a shortfall in laborers from EU countries. About half of all construction workers in London and the South East are foreign-born.

The “Brexodus,” as it is called, is being felt particularly acutely in the agriculture industry, which relies heavily on manual laborers, especially from poor European countries such as Romania and Bulgaria. Although Europe is experiencing a boom in “disposable” workers who are sent to all corners of the Continent, many appear to be shunning Britain.

In Mitchell’s case, the first signs appeared last fall, after the June 2016 referendum on Brexit. In the spring, the number of returning laborers started dropping.

“There were no-shows, people started changing their minds,” he said. “Guys who’ve worked five, six years with us started saying, ‘We’re not returning.’ It all came to a head in late summer and autumn. The workload was getting stretched, and we literally could not replace and recruit.”

“It was really difficult,” Mitchell, 36, said stoically. “The big thing that’s on everybody’s mind is the labor shortage.”

Across Britain, fruit farmers such as Mitchell are scrambling to recruit and retain workers ahead of next spring, when the competition for a shrinking pool of labor will be at its fiercest.

British agriculture experienced a labor shortfall of between 13 and 29 percent on a monthly basis from May to September, according to the National Farmers Union. John Hardman, director at Hops Labour Solutions, a supplier of temporary workers, said that labor fell by as much as 40 percent during the peak season between April and September compared with the same period last year. Industry officials and experts expect the shortage to be worse next year.

Farmers are taking steps to persuade workers from the rest of Europe to come work for them: better wages and conditions — in some cases, as high as $20 an hour — English lessons, even access to tennis courts and movie theaters. Still, recruiting has been difficult.