at home with ann

I am incensed and I owe a good good friend an apology – I lost my rag, not with him, but with the system.     We have discussed it a million times and last night was no exception – he wanted to drop the subject, but I wouldn’t let it go because I find it so outrageous and I’m sorry that I give him a hard time and I’m sorry he has to put up with this – and I know he’s not alone, so this is for everyone.  

I thought slavery had been abolished, but when an employee has no rights, no contract, is paid peanuts and can be let go at a moment’s notice, it does make me wonder.      This friend worked for over eight years, full time for a company and was made redundant at the outset of the recession over a year ago.   The company is still in business and he was given zilch, no redundancy pay, not one single cent – why, because where he lives the employee has no contract and no rights.    My country is not perfect  but unless a company goes under and the employee becomes a creditor, there are statutory payments they have to make when letting someone go.    Since losing that job  and being unemployed for a while, he is now working for a supermarket under the same conditions, no contract, no rights.

I am sure that every supermarket employee in this country has a signed contract, proper annual leave entitlement, even in their first year, sick pay and an element of security as long as they fulfil their contractual obligations and the company is still trading.   I would like to name and shame the American supermarket chain my friend busts a gut for, but I don’t want to do anything that would jeopardise him.   Instead I shall rant here and hope I express it better in verse. 

Injustice

this is the promised land
the golden medina
where the grass is greener

in this ‘new’ land
its declaration vows
the pursuit of happiness for every man
life and liberty and equality

if you’re the employer
not the employee!
what hypocrisy!

“In G-d We Trust”
the motto of this State
that’s not enough when
the ethos means

no business ethics
no rights
no contracts
no leave

they can dismiss you as they please
no such thing as loyalty
no pat on the back, a job well done
you’re an asset to the company

instead – you’re a liability
dispensable, expendable
to hell with security
if you don’t like it, tough

there’s always another
to take your place
in the land of the free
the United States