Young Workers underpaid, exploited & fed up

I was always told that if I got a degree, I’d have no trouble finding a well-paid full-time job. I finished college in May, and haven’t been able to find a job, though I have been working part-time in the same pub I’ve been working in since I was sixteen.

I was always told that if I got a degree, I’d have no trouble finding a well-paid full-time job. I finished college in May, and haven’t been able to find a job, though I have been working part-time in the same pub I’ve been working in since I was sixteen.

 

Most of the customers either work in the public or construction sectors, so due to the property crash and the cuts to public sector workers’ pay, the pub isn’t half as busy as it was a couple of years ago. Many of the pubs in the local area have laid-off workers or put full-timers on three-day-weeks. All of the part-time staff where I work have had their hours cut.  Some of the lounge staff work behind the bar, and because they’re under eighteen, the boss justifies paying below the adult minimum wage, which is well below the rate for qualified bar staff.

The owner is still making tens of thousands a week, but because the profits are down in comparison to last year, he’s demanding cutbacks wherever possible. The paltry €50 Christmas bonus we used to get, was replaced with vouchers last year, and this year we got nothing. Unemployment and poverty are creating social problems that mean that the pub is increasingly dangerous to work in but so long as the tills kept ringing, the safety of the customers and staff is not an issue for the company.

Working in these conditions makes me even more angry when I hear the likes of ISME and IBEC calling for a reduction in the minimum wage. A representative of ISME on Frontline argued that “people who stack shelves and sweep floors should be paid €5.50 per hour”. According to him, we need to lower wages for job creation and to help business owners to generate wealth. Business owners don’t generate wealth in society, workers do. Without the staff, all my boss would have is an empty and closed shop. In the same episode of Frontline, Jack O’Connor argued that if you take ISME’s argument to the extreme, then workers should work for nothing in order to make Ireland more competitive.

Jack O’Connor is correct to point out the absurdity of the argument, but what has he done for workers lately? The unwillingness of the trade union leaders to mobilise the power of the workers’ movement to defeat government cuts has emboldened the business establishment in demanding minimum wage cuts. The union leaders are selling us out at every turn. And it’s no wonder when most of them earn over €100,000 a year. How would they know what life is like for low paid workers like me.

Total
0
Shares
Previous Article

Mortgage defaults - No prospect of government help & More Bank bailouts!

Next Article

Palestine: ElJidar Lazem Inhar – "The Wall Must Fall!"

Related Posts
Read More

Stop the deportation of the Adeniran family

The Adeniran family who have lived in Ireland for many years are facing deportation to Nigeria after their High Court bid for asylum failed. A group of Balbriggan school students who attend the Community College with the eldest son, Bola, have come together to fight the deportation and have formed the Friends of the Adeniran Family campaign.

Minimum wage cut?

By Laura Fitzgerald

EVERYONE KNOWS the minimum wage is paltry and it’s not enough to live on. Many young people up to the age of 20 have an even lower minimum wage, as miserable as €6.06 per hour for some. Yet each time we hear the oft-repeated mantra of “We must regain competitiveness” from the spokespersons for big and small businesses and right-wing politicians it is now increasingly accompanied by calls for the lowering of the minimum wage.

The Quick Food Service Alliance which includes McDonalds, Burger King, Subway and Abrakebabra, have had the gall to launch a legal challenge to the minimum wage and to the compulsion to pay over-time rates on a Sunday!

Read More

‘Jobbridge’ is a scam

Looking for work? Good news- courtesy of the government's 'Jobbridge' scheme, there's all kinds of full-time opportunities on offer. The Corner Bakery in Terenure is looking for a Bakery Assistant. The Landsdowne Hotel in Ballsbridge is looking for waiting staff. Axa Assistance is looking for a call centre worker in Athlone. You'll even get an extra €50 euro a week.