"McDonald’s has admitted 90 per cent of its UK employees are on zero-hours contracts. The admission indicates the fast-food chain is potentially the largest zero-hours employer in the UK’s private sector, with 82,800 contracted staff not guaranteed work or a stable income.The controversial practice requires employees to be available for work when it is required but, as they are contracted for 0 hours a week, employers are under no obligation to use them or pay them a set wage."
Link to McScrooge story here.
Good old McDonald’s they sell a lot of junk to the customers and offer nothing but slavery to the employees. No sick pay, no holiday pay, no pension and not a guarantee of any work, this is modern Britain. Multi £billion companies who pay little if any corporation tax and shaft the employees. Most of the workers in supermarkets on a part time job and minimal wage. When they can’t make ends meet we as tax payers subsidise the companies and add to their profits.
Tesco Every little bit helps.
In May 2007, it was revealed that Tesco had moved the head office of its online operations to Switzerland. This allows it to sell CDs, DVDs and electronic games through its web site without charging VAT. The operation had previously been run from Jersey, but had been closed by authorities who feared damage to the island's reputation. In June 2008, the government announced that it was closing a tax loophole being used by Tesco. The scheme, identified by British magazine Private Eye, utilises offshore holding companies in Luxembourg and partnership agreements to reduce corporation tax liability by up to £50 million a year.
Another scheme previously identified by Private Eye involved depositing £1 billion in a Swiss partnership, and then loaning out that money to overseas Tesco stores, so that profit can be transferred indirectly through interest payments. This scheme is still in operation and is estimated to be costing the UK exchequer up to £20 million a year in corporation tax. Tax expert Richard Murphy has provided an analysis of this avoidance structure. Wiki
One law for the rich another for the poor, it was ever thus.
Eddie
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9 comments:
boycott the bastards -- it may not do much, but makes ME feel better. viva Costco!
Greed, greed and more greed. The government lets them get away with it. People who are trying to work deserve better treatment
Martin
Hi Tess!
Very well put and as the uncle of 2 boys who took on a 'McJob' at one point I can confirm by their anecdotal experiences that it really is a house of servitude and the employees are nothing but a number,quite ironic their corporate mascot was a clown as they're laughing all the way to the bank whilst having the scruples of a Komodo dragon.
Regards
Paul
if we had a list of ethical firms
I am sure many of us would be prepared to favour them wih our custom.
Unforunately it would be a very short list and subject to constant change1
blinkered
You have to boycott these firms.
Does anyone remember the baby milk scandal with Nestle? The boycott is still active in place and I would never buy their products. I may be only one voice but I am one more than there was at the start of the boycott.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nestlé_boycott
They should hang their heads in shame, taking advantage of poor people in developing countries.
Irene.
I've boycotted a few things in my ime.Its not so much that your custom wll make any difference its more thet you can't bear to feel you are encouraging and supporting people you despise to do things you
hate.
Its "Not in My Name". I have never regretted any of it.
Kath/blinkered
Hi Irene
Nestle with their track record are along with Coca-Cola, Kellogg, PepsiCo, Tate & Lyle and others sustaining members of the British Nutrition Foundation
Graham
The controversial practice requires employees to be available for work when it is required but, as they are contracted for 0 hours a week, employers are under no obligation to use them or pay them a set wage...No sick pay, no holiday pay, no pension and not a guarantee of any work, this is modern Britain.
I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the US, it's called "at-will employment." Your employer is n't obligated to provide a certain number of hours, but IME, even the crummiest little places schedule you for a certain number of hours every week. Employees in positions like flipping burgers are almost never at a job long enough to justify setting up benefits. In the restaurant business in particular, people just quit showing up one day. Nobody is setting up pensions anymore, which is just as well, since a lot of them are underfunded.
I know flaky, shaky job situations suck (I was an engineer for five years), but I can't see lowest-rung jobs being made into what we call "real jobs."
Its a "chicken or egg 2 situation isn't it Lori?
Do employers treat their employees like that because he employees are unreliable and transient or are employees forced to look for other jobs because hey need a regular income and have other commitments so are not available whenever he employer requires hem.
I is quite possible to be committed and to work hard at a part time job but it isn't possible to live on nothing.
The other night I was in a restaurant-an American chain.
Two young men run off their feet serving fifty tables and polite and courteous with it.
We spoke to them when hings calmed down. the place is always understaffed -so run on a shoestring2 hey were both students and who have worked here from their schooldays but -five years in one case- but rather than any reward or consideration the employer just took advantage of their loyalty and experience.
The employer will probably replace them with the sort of employees they deserve.
Kath
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