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The Reality of Working for a Supermarket in 2009/Return to Victorian Britain
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tesuhoha
Posts: 17,971 Forumite
I am going to be very vague about the identity of the person who gave me this information as I do not want to endanger his job any more than it already is but I am outraged enough on his behalf to post this.
However he is an economic migrant and came to this country to work. He doesnt want much, just enough to pay his way, and to send a little money home to his mother.
He is on his second job. When he lost the first through no fault of his own he did not claim any benefit but lived on the savings he had. He now has another job for lets say the biggest supermarket. Agency work. He works in the supermarket depot as a picker. Every day he faces a long and problematic journey to work, cant tell you anymore as it would give away the location. He works for £6 an hour approximately. He has to turn up every day but some days after a couple of hours he is told there is no work and has to go home. He never gets an 8 hour day.
They work on a points system. They are given a point if they are more than a couple of minutes late back from lunch and a point if they take more than 4 minutes going to the toilet. If they get 3 points then they are sacked. This person recently met someone who got the sack from this place because they were only working at 120% when 200% is expected. There are no English people working at this place because they would not be able to keep up. My friend has not yet reached 100% although he is fit and athletic so he is expecting to lose his job sometime soon. So they expect 200% for just over the minimum wage. Apparently this warehouse has sacked over 1,000 people this year.
At the interview he was told he would receive training and eventually a supermarket contract. There is no training and no contract. They do not get overtime pay even if they start work early. There is no sick pay, no holiday pay, and well, certainly no pension. I think Bob Cratchett was treated better than this.
It makes me feel so angry when I think how the unions struggled to get decent working conditions for blue collar workers and now they are going back to Victorian times and being treated like !!!!!! because there is an excess of labour. The big companies are profiteering from and exploiting people because they can. They dont have to employ people with a contract anymore, they use agencies and this means they can do what they like. If someone refuses to work under these conditions then they will sack them and someone else who will work will be along in the blink of an eye. This is not the only company doing it, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands. There is an excess of labour and much unemployment. People at the top of the ladder might be saying, 'recession, what recession' but for people starting out at the bottom this is the reality of life today, no proper jobs, no full time jobs, minimum wage. Huge amounts of money are still being made but it is going to the companies and not into the pockets of the workers. These people will never be able to afford to buy a house. The poor are indeed getting very much poorer and the rich are getting richer.
My friend recently said that he hates this country because if you are honest and hardworking you get nowhere, you are better off being lazy.
However he is an economic migrant and came to this country to work. He doesnt want much, just enough to pay his way, and to send a little money home to his mother.
He is on his second job. When he lost the first through no fault of his own he did not claim any benefit but lived on the savings he had. He now has another job for lets say the biggest supermarket. Agency work. He works in the supermarket depot as a picker. Every day he faces a long and problematic journey to work, cant tell you anymore as it would give away the location. He works for £6 an hour approximately. He has to turn up every day but some days after a couple of hours he is told there is no work and has to go home. He never gets an 8 hour day.
They work on a points system. They are given a point if they are more than a couple of minutes late back from lunch and a point if they take more than 4 minutes going to the toilet. If they get 3 points then they are sacked. This person recently met someone who got the sack from this place because they were only working at 120% when 200% is expected. There are no English people working at this place because they would not be able to keep up. My friend has not yet reached 100% although he is fit and athletic so he is expecting to lose his job sometime soon. So they expect 200% for just over the minimum wage. Apparently this warehouse has sacked over 1,000 people this year.
At the interview he was told he would receive training and eventually a supermarket contract. There is no training and no contract. They do not get overtime pay even if they start work early. There is no sick pay, no holiday pay, and well, certainly no pension. I think Bob Cratchett was treated better than this.
It makes me feel so angry when I think how the unions struggled to get decent working conditions for blue collar workers and now they are going back to Victorian times and being treated like !!!!!! because there is an excess of labour. The big companies are profiteering from and exploiting people because they can. They dont have to employ people with a contract anymore, they use agencies and this means they can do what they like. If someone refuses to work under these conditions then they will sack them and someone else who will work will be along in the blink of an eye. This is not the only company doing it, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands. There is an excess of labour and much unemployment. People at the top of the ladder might be saying, 'recession, what recession' but for people starting out at the bottom this is the reality of life today, no proper jobs, no full time jobs, minimum wage. Huge amounts of money are still being made but it is going to the companies and not into the pockets of the workers. These people will never be able to afford to buy a house. The poor are indeed getting very much poorer and the rich are getting richer.
My friend recently said that he hates this country because if you are honest and hardworking you get nowhere, you are better off being lazy.
The forest would be very silent if no birds sang except for the birds that sang the best
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Comments
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well if he doesn't like it.......Please take the time to have a look around my Daughter's website www.daisypalmertrust.co.uk
(MSE Andrea says ok!)0 -
More abuse of agency workers:
http://www.fairtoagencyworkers.org/2009/06/25/agency-workers-left-out-in-the-cold-by-tesco
There are a lot of people in this country who fall through the cracks of current employment law.0 -
JayScottGreenspan wrote: »More abuse of agency workers:
http://www.fairtoagencyworkers.org/2009/06/25/agency-workers-left-out-in-the-cold-by-tesco
There are a lot of people in this country who fall through the cracks of current employment law.
Same company. They really should be ashamed of themselves with the vast profits they make. The link is just typical of the way they are treated throughout the country. I certainly won't be shopping with them again.The forest would be very silent if no birds sang except for the birds that sang the best0 -
What about this for a bit of retribution?
1) Work there for a month.
2) Document the working conditions meticulously.
3) Make clear and reasoned complaints about the health risks.
4) If you are then fired for making such complaints then GOTO 6:
5) If you are not fired, but your concerns are dismissed, then wait another month and then notify them of all health complaints you have suffered as a result of their negligence. GOTO 6:
6) Get a no win no fee lawyer and sue their a55!0 -
Unfortunately poor, unskilled workers always end up being treated badly and there really is very little that can be done in law.
The best thing IMO is for people to do business with companies that act decently for the most part. When I lived in the UK, if I ever shopped in a supermarket it would be Waitrose whenever possible as they seemed to treat their staff properly.
If you do business with a company just because they're the cheapest then you are complicit in the bad treatment of their workers. I realise that's contrary to the ethos of this website in some respects but what the hey.0 -
I can think of no reason why you don't say which company and where.0
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I can think of no reason why you don't say which company and where.
Tesco, somewhere near Glasgow, or South London
Please take the time to have a look around my Daughter's website www.daisypalmertrust.co.uk
(MSE Andrea says ok!)0 -
inspector_monkfish wrote: »Tesco, somewhere near Glasgow, or South London
I would guess Croydon.0 -
Supermarkets are well known for squeezing their staff, not to mention their suppliers. I wish I could remember the title of a book I read a couple of years ago, documenting the various unethical practices that the largest chains use to maintain their prices.Be careful who you open up to. Today it's ears, tomorrow it's mouth.0
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I can think of no reason why you don't say which company and where.
Because they could quite easily figure out who he is and sack him. Maybe I am paranoid but I feel its better to be safe than sorry. However if you look back I have said in so many words who the company is.The forest would be very silent if no birds sang except for the birds that sang the best0
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