Zero hours contracts

One step too far; the exposure of zero hours contracts which tells us that over a million people are operating this Victorian slavery scheme. Having spent most of my late working life in the Trade Union movement, discussing, arguing , even going out on strike to obtain some decent working conditions only to now see this coalition led corporate nasty scheme being extended daily is beyond belief. Little wonder that the country is in a mess.

This has been allowed to happen because of the flexibility of working practices required by some now being twisted and turned on its head by corporate powers with a good push from our friend Osborne and his gang of forty thieves, encouraging low paid sectors, giving one-sided flexibility to the employer ending with total insecurity to the worker. There is no requirement for holiday, sick or redundancy pay. Reports in the media tell of zero hours workers being “bullied” and “terrified”; this is a form of cancer being fed into the workplace and is spreading rapidly. Even worse are the big names involved in this modern serfdom: McDonalds, Boot’s, Amazon, Cineworld, The Tate Galleries, and even Buckingham Palace, as well as Sports Direct who have 90% of their 23,000 workers on zero hours contracts while the rest are full-time employees on bonuses up to £100,000.

Far from boosting economic recovery or employment, it is one of the factors behind the largest fall in real wages over a century. Statistical facts from the TUC (Trade Union Council) tell us that four out of five new jobs since 2008 have been created in low wage sectors, mostly part-time, hence the government lie about employment figures.
If we were to take advice from the likes of Grant Shapps, the Tory party’s chairman, who said firms need to be “disingenuous” about sacking people (nice man) we clearly know what to expect, certainly up to 2015.

One of the reasons why some countries, in particular Germany, are progressing better in their industrial relations records, is that they have learned from others in the world how to combine business and its workforce to work successfully as one.

The people who created the policy of zero hours casualisation should be put in a small boat to the middle of the Pacific and blown up before this disastrous system spreads any further.

What a strange world we live in? Laws and legislation that penalise people if they park on red line yet do not penalise corporate interest that exploit its workforce. With this in mind us oldies had better watch out (I should say senior citizens). Our government has attacked and removed much of the help and support from all vulnerable/ poor people. The older generation are under the microscope. They would love to give us zero hours.