It seems to be fairly commonplace amongst the mainstream (read:
right wing) media to place the blame for much of the unemployment firmly on the
shoulders of the 'work shy' benefit scroungers or that the "the
welfare system discourages Britons from seeking work, just as it punishes
parents who stick together" (Daily Mail Online:2009). Rarely is any of the
blame for why some people apparently feel disinclined to work apportioned to
the employers of this nation. I have recently had first hand experience of the
way companies are exploiting our workforce's dire need for a job as a way of
getting away with poor pay, terrible working conditions and total
disorganisation.
My first example comes from a job I was recently offered with a marketing organisation working on behalf of some of the biggest UK charities doing door to door sales. Whilst the job itself was not one I considered myself to be 'above' after attending the 9hr (!) long job interview, I, and everyone I spoke to, agreed that I would be better off poor and eating Asda Smart Price Baked Beans for the rest of my university days than working there.
For
starters, the role was commission only - £30 per person signed up to donate
monthly. This apparently rewarded those who were the best sales people, and
motivated others to improve their technique. Besides the moral ambiguity
of becoming better at talking people who already sadly claimed they did not
have a spare £6.50 a month (a surprisingly large number of
people) out of what little spare cash they had, this simply didn't work. My
partner for the 9 hour interview was a young woman who was apparently about to
be promoted to manager for her fantastic sales record. In the day I was with
her, she worked a total of 11 hours and took home £60 having only managed to
secure 2 sign ups which averaged around £5.45 per hour. This is less than the
minimum wage of £6.08 per hour for over 21s. On the very same day a new recruit
to the company also worked 11 hours earning just £30 and another worked the
same hours and took home nothing. Upon buying train tickets for the group to go
and work Worthing, 3 out of the 4 people there had not enough money in their
account to pay the £15, despite being paid less than a week previously. This
was by no means the end to the shocking conditions I was told I was only too
lucky to be offered. If you were lucky enough to make a sale, you were then expected
to enter the person's house to sign the paperwork without any security measures
to ensure your safety. I was also expected to attend 5 days worth of unpaid
training before i took up the job and I was expected to wear suits or similar
everyday. Altogether to work for this company I could potentially go on a very
expensive shopping trip, give up 11 hours a day for work and then end
up financially worse off for the experience. I suppose it could be
argued that although the pay and conditions were pretty appalling, a job is a
job and the work experience and life lessons I could learn from this would
still be beneficial to me in the future. So yes, for future job applications I
would have had an extra employer to add to my list and it is true that my customer
service skills would probably have improved. However, this is little use to me
and many others like me, who still have rent and bills to pay at the end of
each month. What became apparent to me though, was that although I had the
luxury of walking away from this job, somebody on Job Seekers Allowance would
not. They would have been forced to take the job and potentially end up
financially worse off for doing do.
Even
when I got a job with a high end retailer yet had to leave for health reasons
(allergic to the cleaning fluid) the organisation and working conditions were
poor. Although the pay was reasonable (£7.14 per hour) the organisation was
shocking, training levels dangerous and staff satisfaction very low. Yet the
company could get away with this, as people need jobs. A desperate workforce is
a loyal workforce. Rule number 1 of a capitalists handbook.
My
experiences are by no means unique either. My boyfriend recently worked the
Farnborough Air Show through a manual labour agency. On two occasions he showed
up for a shift only to find no one there to work for and when he did work, he
was given dangerously low training, encouraged to
sexually harass female employees and left waiting in the pouring rain
unnecessarily. So why didn't he tell them where to shove their job? Because he
has rent to pay, a student loan to pay off and the Bank of Mum and Dad is
dwindling.
On
a wider scale, another discovery was made in these jobs. In the advertising
job, my fellow applicants included a woman with an MA in International
Marketing and another with 10 years marketing experience. This was the best job
they could get. In the the retail job, one woman had a degree in retail
management, one was a graduate from Sheffield University with a first in Maths
and one took the job simply because he needed the staff discount. This is what
our economy has come to.
We
have a highly educated yet very desperate workforce; an employers wet dream.
You are now expected to count your blessings if you are in a job at all and that
the luxury of one that pays a living wage and treats you as a human being is
one luxury we cannot afford. So it therefore hardly seems surprising that
people aren't champing at the bit to accept any job that comes their way when
this is what is out there to greet them. Appalling conditions, terrible pay and
a general lack of respect: it's a scary world out there. Yet the likes of
Tescos are being rewarded and applauded for taking on more people on a Workfare
scheme and it is the so called work-shy shirkers who are having their benefits
slashed to make work more appealing. What good is that going to do? Those who
are in work are even more desperate to stay there as they cannot afford not to
be and those who are out of work are just as desperately poor and even less
willing to work as before. Unions will become weaker as desperate workers are
unlikely to rattle the cages of their employers so everyone will suffer,
unionised or not.
Overall,
punishing workers and rewarding employers for an economy rigged in favour of
the latter is a recipe for disaster. We currently have an economy where work is
not rewarding and the problem will only be made worse by reducing
benefits. It can be psychologically damaging to be out of work, yet people
aren't going to be thrilled about coming back to work when they can still
suffer psychological damage in the form of stress from being over worked and
severely underpaid. It is also rather damaging to self esteem if you are
trained in engineering after studying for 16 years to get there, and are stuck
behind a coffee machine. Yet the culprit here is larger than the employers who
are reaping the benefits of this system, although they should not be totally
absolved of responsibility. The culprit is capitalism. In a system where the
powerful equal the rich, the poor will always be desperate for work and the
working conditions and pay will reflect this. A safety net of the Welfare State
will help, but when the main problem lies at the heart of our economic
foundations, nothing but a total overhaul of the system will do. In the mean
time, creating a living wage rather than minimum wage and keeping benefits to a
good standard is a small step in the right direction. A workforce who can pay
their bills is a workforce who will fight for better conditions for everyone,
which overall will encourage and inspire people to enter the working world.
