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Grower tries prefabricated cardboard housing for laborours


Tags: Excerpts from the Windmill

ANNA PAULOWNA – Housing for seasonal labour in agriculture tends to generate problems. The jobs are frequently in rural areas where living quarters are often in makeshifts rooms in barns or small campers. Farmers or growers are allowed to accommodate up to twenty labourers on their yard. One such rural entrepreneur ordered a small bungalow-style cardboard house which accommodates eight people. Prefabricated, the dwelling was put up on a (dry) day, is weather-proof once enclosed and is expected to last up to twenty years. The biggest maintenance requirement is an annual recoating or weatherproofing of the cardboard wall. Growers often employ Polish migrant workers, although in recent years there has also been an increasing number of Rumanians doing seasonal work on Dutch farms.