Posted by Holly Ashby

Ain’t no recovery like an Osborne recovery

Large stores are cutting back on overtimeThe economic plan is working, according to George Osborne, and the recovery is taking hold. He seems to be one of the very few who’s noticed. To the rest of us, the recession still feels like a withered, tunnel-eyed guest. Not just unwelcome, but sat uncomfortably and unyieldingly, right in our living rooms. Reports of “thawing credit conditions” and a economy that is “growing robustly” means little to people whose employers and government have gloried in the opportunity to follow an ideological, right wing campaign in the name of necessity. Besides, it’s hard to ignore the feeling that the damage has already been done. Talk of an upturn offers little comfort. The effects of Tory attacks on public services are snowballing to a point where it’s hard to imagine a way back.

Those of us, like me, relying on low-hour contracts for work (which I have written about before) are still struggling. As we approach Christmas, the store I work for has done the counter-intuitive thing – and has drastically cut back overtime. Overtime was limited enough already, and now all they’re offering is “time in lieu”: we can work over Christmas in exchange for paid leave during our contracted shifts in January. Continue reading →

Aspiration Nation: where the young don’t even have a safety net

NO MORE BENEFITS BASEBALL CAPThere are 1.09 million people between the ages of 16 to 24 who are neither earning nor learning. They can’t find jobs, but are unwilling to retrain. There are some who have, since leaving school, actively refused to improve themselves through the dignifying act of work and plan to live, forever, on jobseekers’ allowance. This is a terrible, expensive state of affairs. But there is no need to worry, because as was made clear at The Conservative party conference, the Tories are planning to swoop in and give them what for.

In plans that I, perhaps naively, found shocking in their sweeping severity, the Conservatives have announced the potential reduction and removal of benefits for the under 25s. All at a time when there are at least three applicants chasing every job vacancy. Continue reading →

The reality of low-hour contracts – zero is just the surface

Empty supermarket checkoutsThis week, it seems that everyone is talking about zero-hour contracts. Yet the problem is far wider – with many workers facing similar insecurities through agreements of slightly different shapes. At the supermarket where I work, many of us are on contracts of ten hours or less a week – in my case, four hours. Others are on “flexible” contracts, which basically translates as “you get hours if we need you, and good luck if we don’t”.

This may sound quite familiar to many. While the affects of the economic downturn trundle on like an army of weary orcs, so many of us must  jobs that previously only existed in the wet dreams of Victorian free marketeers. And the best thing about it is, we are meant to be grateful to our wealth creating betters for providing us with them.
Continue reading →