Jobs Increase, But What Kind of Jobs? How many people do you know that have recently got permanent, pensionable employment with fixed hours, decent holidays and medical cover? The coalitions in Leinster House and Stormont are very keen to tell us that lots of new jobs have been created over the last couple of years. But they arent so keen to talk about the quality or security of those jobs. In reality many of these jobs are actually part-time or short-term positions without pensions, paid holidays or many of the other basic terms of good employment. The last thirty years have seen the terms of employment across Ireland (and much of the world) take a series of backward steps. Where permanent, pensionable jobs with sufficient paid holidays and fixed hours were once commonplace they are now the exception. Ever greater numbers of workers are now employed on the basis of short-term contracts without any meaningful benefits, or on zero-hour contracts. Other workers have been forced into declaring themselves as self-employed when in fact they are de facto employees. All of these measures are designed to relieve the bosses and corporations of their responsibilities to their employees - rights that were hard fought for by generations of workers. And as result the bosses and the corporations are able to keep a greater share of the profits for themselves. The reduction in the wages and conditions of employment of workers today is a direct result of the neo-liberal policies spear-headed by Thatcher and Regan in the 1980s. Policies which are still being slavishly adhered to by the Fine Gael, Labour, Sinn Fein, the DUP and the other parties that make up the Stormont coalition. The undermining of workers wages and conditions over the last thirty years (which has been facilitated by the collusion of much of the trade union leadership) has spawned its own phraseology. We workers are continuously told that we must be flexible, competitive and be prepared to charge career many times. We are also told by the so-called experts that the day of the permanent, pensionable job is gone for ever. So while the worker lives in a state of permanent panic about their job prospects the boss gets to use their labour in the good times and dump them on the scrapheap when they get old, sick, pregnant or more expensive than the next poor victim. None of us should accept the notion that all workers are not entitled to secure long-term employment with healthcare, pensions, paid holidays and other basic terms of good employment. Nor should we accept the notion that there is only one route to economic prosperity - a route that places private capital and private corporations at the heart of the economy. In reality there are many routes and many economic models that could produce both economic progress and progressive terms of employment for all. The fact that these alternatives would eliminate a super-rich elite might have something to do with the fact that the super-rich keep telling us that there are no alternatives to the current system. So the next time you see Enda Kenny, Peter Robinson, Martin McGuinness or Joan Burton announcing new jobs ask yourself what sort of jobs they actually are.
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:13:39 +0000
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