I read an article last week in a Dutch trade magazine that translates as The Tree Nursery. The headline – ‘Keeping employees fit until retirement’ – caught my attention. This is another sector where people are obviously getting older and are also being expected to work longer.
The article fitted in very neatly with the debate in the Netherlands about raising the age for retirement, which was set at 67 with effect from 1 January 2014. It looks as though Parliament has ignored the implications for people with heavy and arduous jobs.
Obviously, I don’t want to get mixed up in that debate. But I do think it is important for our company to do everything in its power to improve working conditions, not only for our own employees but also for people in horticulture generally. Because there is no doubt that our sector is heavy and arduous. Even though things have, of course, improved in recent decades.
Growers have often got back to me to say that our cultivation floor leads to a significant improvement in working conditions in the sector. People don’t have to bend over any more; they can use a simple bracket (or fork) to line up, space and even harvest plants.
I recently visited a grower with two locations. In one location, he worked with drip irrigation; in the other, he had a modern ErfGoedFloor with our ebb and flow system. He said that his employees preferred to work only on the ErfGoedFloor. It is clean and dry, the surface is kind to the feet, and you no longer have to bend over. ‘People really do enjoy working here!’ was his conclusion.
Of course, those benefits are very much a result of the uniformity of the crops on an ErfGoedFloor. Water is delivered evenly and, as a result, growers have extremely even plant growth so that the vast majority of the plants can be harvested all at once. That is much pleasanter than having to root out all the plants you want.
An ErfGoedFloor results in the ideal growing conditions, providing plants with maximum comfort and allowing them to develop optimally. And let’s face it: healthy and vigorous crops are much less demanding for growers and their employees. I always say: happy plants are good for the people who work with them. As I have heard many clients say, growing becomes almost automatic!
So it’s pleasant to grow old on an ErfGoedFloor.