We publish here two letters from young workers in Edinburgh, which provide personal accounts of their experiences of unemployment and temporary work – experiences that are only too common for a vast number of youth these days. The first letter describes the degrading experience of being unemployed and on Jobseekers’ Allowance, whilst the second discusses the insecure and exploitative nature of temporary, part-time summer jobs, many of which use “zero-hour” contacts.
We publish here two letters from young workers in Edinburgh, which provide personal accounts of their experiences of unemployment and temporary work – experiences that are only too common for a vast number of youth these days. The first letter describes the degrading experience of being unemployed and on Jobseekers’ Allowance, whilst the second discusses the insecure and exploitative nature of temporary, part-time summer jobs, many of which use “zero-hour” contacts.
Unemployment. What a terrifying word. Back in the 1800’s, the unemployed had no support and were forced into the poorhouse to work for a pittance. Long hours, small pay. The poorhouse had a terrible reputation and people sometimes chose to starve rather than go there.
But this is the 2000s; surely things are different now? Well, yes and no. The unemployment benefit received is far above the poorhouse wage, and (most of) the staff at the Job Centre genuinely wish to help you find a job and provide you with a wealth of help and support, from help writing a CV to notifying you of job openings. So how can it be the same?
Well, let’s take a look at the benefit received – the JSA (Jobseekers’ Allowance), £113.60 per fortnight. Can anyone really live on this? Not in the slightest. A wage of £227.20 a month is not going to pay for much. Whilst the amount received has increased, so has inflation. And what do you have to do to receive said benefit? Three tasks a day.
Only three tasks? And you’re complaining? Of course. I feel I need to explain: previously the Jobseeker had to apply for three jobs a week. Note the term – “jobs”. Not tasks. This means you can be looking online for jobs, without actually applying for anything.
And say I miss the fortnightly interview, what then? Well, it’s re-arranged – the Job Centre have to, after all, check that you’ve done your 42 things. Oh, and they refuse to pay your benefit for four weeks. But that’s no big thing, right? After all, you’re a work-shy money grabber and it’s all you deserve.
And that, dear reader, brings me to the final point: the perception of people who are unemployed. There is an idea that being unemployed is easy; is somehow preferable. It isn’t. People have perceptions of you based on many things – how you look, how you speak, how you act, where you live and where you work. Employment affects these things. The unemployed can’t afford healthy food or new, smart clothes and this affects how they both look and act.
Tell someone you’re unemployed and they gauge your net worth to society to be nothing – or less than nothing. You just take from society, you don’t give.
And it crushes you. You do your three things, you apply for jobs. No company responds, at all. No courtesy call to tell you that you were unsuccessful. And it crushes you.
You meet up with friends, trying to forget that you have no money, that the fiver in your pocket is borrowed, that you really should be spending it on food, but dammit you need to feel human! And for half a glorious hour you do. Then, your working friends go up to the bar and order another. Maybe one offers to buy you a drink.
You’re aware that they’re trying to be nice; you know that if the tables were turned you’d be doing the same, but it’s the reminder: you are not equal to them. You ceased to be equal to them the moment your old boss told you he couldn’t afford to give you hours. You turn on the television and there’s that Tory bastard who has never worked for anything telling the House that the unemployed are scum – cheats who try to play the system – and that the motion should be carried. And it is.
Finally, I shall leave this with an excerpt from the “Jobseeker’s Allowance: Your responsibilities”
Your responsibilities
There are certain things you must do to keep getting Jobseeker’s Alllowance.
From 22 October 2012, we may stop your benefit for up to 156 weeks if you fail to do any of the things listed below. How long we stop your benefit for will depend on:
What you didn’t do and,
Whether it is the first, second or third times you’ve not met your responsibilities in the last 52 weeks,
Below is a summary.
You could lose your benefit for 13 weeks, 26 weeks or 156 weeks (3 years), if you:
Leave a job voluntarily or lose your job because of misconduct.
Fail to take part in a mandatory work activity programme.
Fail to take on a suitable employment oppurtunity, or
Refuse or fail to apply for a job which your advisor has notified to you.
You could lose your benefit for 4 weeks or 13 weeks if you:
Fail to attend an advisor interview,
Fail to comply with a Jobseeker’s Direction,
Fail to take part in a particular employment programme that you have been reffered to,
Do not take the oppurtunity of a place on an employment programme or training scheme,
Refuse or fail to apply for, or accept, a place on such a programme or scheme notified to you by your advisor or,
Fail to attend or give up a place or through your own misconduct lose a place on such a programme or scheme.
There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. You can not choose where you work. Because capitalism is in crisis; the system cannot provide jobs; and the government wants to cut down on unemployment figures.
By a Scrounger
Summer means a time for travelling and relaxing, seeing new places, experiencing new cultures. The UK has a large tourist industry and is getting more popular as a tourist destination. The investment in this sector is increasing, as is the number of visitors to the UK.
At the same time, summer is also synonymous with temporary and part-time jobs. All of these jobs share a couple of feature: full exploitation of the worker and no union rights!
Summer, especially in the hospitality sector, is the most prevalent time for hiring people on “zero hour contracts”. These casual jobs, as they are often referred to, allow the employers to hire wagee labour without guaranteeing any hours of work. If there is work, you will be called. If there isn’t any, you will stay home, but your rent and bills must still be paid.
As you can imagine, over the summer plenty of these contracts are signed, as the demand increases for the warmest period of the year. Once September or October comes, the demand is slashed and casual employees’ hours are slashed. No rights, no chance to claim any unemployment benefits. Essentially unemployed again. That’s the situation that not only young people, but more and more adults also, face today.
The zero hours contracts are one of the reasons for which official unemployment rates seem to be coming down, but the real unemployment are zero hour contracts. Once you are hired with a causal contract, you are not unemployed anymore, even though you are going to work only a few, or even zero, hours per month.
Employers do not want to decrease their profits; so when business is not going well, they promptly let us, the workers, carry the burden! Keeping the profits and sharing the losses: that’s what the capitalist system means for the capitalist class.
Workers usually cannot say no to such exploitation, especially in a period of deep crisis like the one we are living in, with high unemployment rates, cuts to welfare, and an increasing cost of basic necessities like food, bills, and rent. All of this competition and these cuts puts pressure on workers to accept even the most terrible exploitation.
The workers of Britain, of Europe, and of the world need to unite. We cannot allow this situation whereby the bosses play one worker against another. We need to organise. We need to fight for better pay; for a job that offers us a secure living; for a job that does not exploit us. We need to fight for the socialist alternative that puts us, the workers, before profit.
By Emanuele De Vito
