Mr. Christos VOULGARIS is a farmer and the owner of olive groves in the area of Agios Konstantinos in Fthiotida. The olive groves belong to the family from previous generations and Mr. Voulgaris continues the family tradition. In addition to olive cultivation, he is also professionally engaged in apiculture.
We should mention that Mr. Voulgaris is also the President of the local Agricultural Olive Oil Cooperative of Agios Konstantinos who has 210 registered members, most of which are involved in the cultivation of olive trees. Overall, the total area of olive groves from their members corresponds to 750 hectares or about 127.500 olive trees. Through this role represents and takes care of the issues that concern the farmers of the area, one of which is the demand of agricultural permanent or seasonal workers.
In addition, he is an advocate of the circular economy and the protection of the environment and because of this he has participated in significant research and demonstrative national and European programs and projects, where pilot actions have taken place in his olive groves and in olive groves that belong to members of the Cooperative. He sells olive oil, table olives and a variety of honey to wholesalers but also directly to consumers.
In Agios Constantinos, there is one of the most historic olive groves in Greece, which is part of the wider olive grove in Fthiotida. It spreads on over 2000 acres, whose main varieties are Amfissis and secondarily Kalamon, in other words, mainly for the production of table olives.
The most basic characteristic of these varieties is that they produce large amounts of wood when they are pruned.
The olive tree cultivations in Greece are highly fragmented; as an indication, in the area of Agios Konstantinos, the local cooperative has 210 registered members and about 750 ha of olive groves (corresponding to 3,6 ha/farmer or 612 olive trees per farmer on average). Farmers collect olives from late October – December; if the purpose of the cultivation is olive oil production, they sell their product to local olive mills, which usually are of a relatively small production capacity of olive oil for Greece.
As already mentioned, Mr. Voulgaris is a farmer and the owner of olive groves in the area of Agios Konstantinos in Fthiotida. The olive groves belong to the family from previous generations and Mr. Voulgaris continues the family tradition. He owns 7 hectares of olive groves both in the lowland part of Agios Konstantinos and in the highlands, where the oldest olive trees are located.
The olive cultivation follows the olive growing practices, which depend each year mainly on weather conditions. Cultivation practices are mainly plant protection, fertilization, pruning, removal or incorporation of prunings and plowing (depending on the field). He cultivates varieties as Amfissis and Kalamon and he produces yearly in total 5 tons of olives for olive oil and 15 tons of table olives.
He is also active in the field of apiculture dedicating 4 hectares to this activity. In this field, the work required is mainly done by him and family members, but in times when the work is very intensive, he also employs one or two workers. The total annual honey production (of all varieties), is 450 kg.
At this farm business, the owner is working together with 2 permanent full time employees that he employed 15 years ago and 6 seasonal employees during the harvesting season.
Gradually, in recent decades, local land workers in rural areas are recorded to leave the countryside and farm work and choose other professional fields, resulting in a significant decline in the rural population. The constant need for land workers was gradually covered by the employment of migrants, mainly from the neighboring countries of Greece (Albania, Bulgaria). But, especially in the last 3 years, there is a lack of foreign agricultural workers, both permanent and seasonal, which leads farmers to decide even not to harvest their products.
In the case of Mr. Voulgaris, both permanent and seasonal migrants, who have settled in Greece or come every year, have been working for him for several years. The farmer hired the permanent migrants 15 years ago and as he offered them permanent work and a place to live they decided to bring their families in the area. The farmer took care of the bureaucracy procedures. He has developed a good relationship with them and both sides are satisfied. On one hand, the employer with the performance, consistency and the terms of cooperation and on the other hand the workers with the working conditions, the safety, the insurance and the daily rate they have agreed.
Labor shortages in the primary sector are plaguing the country’s agricultural cooperatives, triggering a series of problems around production. This is a problem that concerns the agricultural sector, a pillar of the Greek economy, which contributes significantly to its balance.
In Greece, as in several other European countries, there are different ways of searching for and inviting land workers. Such as, through government digital applications to search and apply for workers and jobs respectively. Through agreements between states and regulatory implementation framework. Through specialized agents who provide services to employers and workers, through acquaintances and recommendations, social media in specific pages, etc.
The integration process of the migrant land workers in the case of the permanent workers of Mr. Voulgaris, happened smoothly because the workers had already been in Greece for many years and thus had already learned the language to a satisfactory level and had integrated-harmonized with the local society completely.
The integration of seasonal workers in the case of Mr. Voulgaris has similarities with permanent workers, because it is done through recommendations and concerns workers of the same nationality (Albania), who have already been in Greece for many years, speaking the language, with family settled in the country in their own home.
Despite the fact that the selection of migrants as land workers was somewhat forced due to the lack of native workers, in the case of Mr. Voulgaris, the cooperation between employee and employer was smooth. The specialization of the workers contributed to this and above all the knowledge of the language which allowed for good communication and understanding from the beginning.
Any differences in culture, civilization, diet, worked rather positively, giving the opportunity for exchange of views and getting to know each other.
A strong concern that employers always have in tasks that require teamwork and cooperation, is to have mutual understanding and respect among workers. That is because good collaboration and understanding allows to accomplish fast and well-done work. In addition, it gives satisfaction to the employee that he is sufficient and efficient and minimizes insecurity for his job.
For the employer, an added benefit of getting the job done quickly and well is that he doesn’t have to deal with tensions and issues between the workers.
The integration of migrant workers into the workplace in the case of Mr. Voulgaris was smooth without problems due to the satisfactory knowledge of the Greek language of workers.
Furthermore, the economic conditions and terms of migrant workers are the same and thus they feel equal members of the group.
The permanent staff is satisfied because they have a stable work all over the year as well as social insurance. In addition, their salary is paid on time and consistently. The seasonal workers on the other hand are also satisfied because they have secured work and income each year during the harvesting period of olive groves and also accommodation that is offered to them with no charge.
The two migrant workers that are permanent staff live in the village for many years and they rent their own house where they live with their families. They have been fully integrated into the local society and they do not face any problems of social integration. They have developed friendly relationships with Mr. Voulgaris and with the locals as well.
The seasonal workers, who live in houses given to them by Mr. Voulgaris for free, haven’t developed social contacts with the local community but they do not feel unwanted or socially excluded for as long as they stay in the area. Their main concern is to come and work for a period of time and save money to go back to their families.
The main challenges was to find workers who would know at elementary level Greek so that they could communicate at least on issues related to farming practices. In addition, and especially for the case of permanent workers basic knowledge and skills concerning the cultivation of olive trees was desirable as the owner would not be obliged to be constantly with them and guide them.
At the beginning, the workers knew basic Greek which allowed them to communicate but currently they speak the language fluently. In the case of skills and knowledge, both workers had basic skills but with patience and a positive spirit of cooperation on behalf of the owner, now they can organize farm work consistently.
In national level, according to the owner, the decisions that need to be made are first of all political and then all the necessary legislative arrangements should be made that will facilitate the employment of migrants in the agricultural sector.
Mr. Voulgaris believe that training of farm owners would be beneficial since they would have the opportunity to understand how cultural differences influence the behaviour of the workers and finding solutions for coexistence would benefit the work that has to be done.
Mr. Voulgaris emphasizes the social integration of migrants. He believes that if there is social integration then coexistence will be harmonious and this will have a positive impact on their work. Care should therefore be taken the migrants to be trained regarding the cultural and religious customs in Greece which they should also respect.
In addition, fast-paced language learning courses with emphasis on communication to meet their daily needs as well as on hygiene, safety and basic farming practices would also be desirable.
National workers should be trained to understand that migrant workers come to fill job gaps not filled by natives and therefore should not be viewed as competitors or invaders. They should also be informed to raise awareness of both the social and cultural background of migrants and the reasons why they have migrated in search of work. In many cases the reasons are very important such as e.g. war, natural disasters, poverty. Greek workers should be trained to raise awareness so as to help both the labor and social integration of immigrants as well as to show empathy.
Mr. Voulgaris as a farmer but also as the President of the local agricultural olive oil cooperative recognizes the necessity for hiring migrants in the agricultural sector since there is a shortage of labor in the agricultural sector.
Concerted efforts by central administration and legal arrangements must be made both to find immigrants for these jobs and to improve their accommodation, education and integration into local rural communities.
At the local level, one idea that they are working on and trying to find a way to finance is to create facilities and infrastructure so that they can welcome migrants by offering them free housing.
Finally, he believes that the migrant workers should be recorded to the Public Employment Service. In this way they farmers will be able to pay their insurance, the migrants will pay their share of their insurance and the central administration will be able to design and implement more targeted policies and measures for both farmers and migrants
MILIMAT is a 2-year project funded by the EU Erasmus+ Programme that focuses on integrating migrants into multicultural agricultural teams. The project aims to develop several training resources for farmers and migrant workers in agriculture, with the goal of promoting fair labor relations and encouraging commitment to European labor rights. MILIMAT is led by the CIA Agricoltori Italiani Umbria (Italian Farmers’ Confederation of Umbria).
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Migrants Labour Insertion in Multicultural Agricultural Teams