The bit about alignment of standards, I think is very important. Number 10 are spinning it as “If the EU lower labour standards we would have to follow which we wouldn’t want to do”. I see this as meaning “If the EU RAISE labour standards we would have to follow which we wouldn’t want to do”.
The flow of short-life products such as fresh vegetables and medicines, however, is where the real problems will occur.
It’s a very badly hidden strategy to get rid of the Working Time Directive, which has been a huge benefit to most working people, despite a lot of them opposing it because of the effect on overtime payments.
I genuinely don’t know what to make of him. He embarrasses Johnson time after time in PMQs, then seems to embarrass himself by his alienating of everyone left of centre Labour. I think it’s time he told the Jewish community that enough is enough. Apologies have been made, plans are, apparently, in place to improve things, and time needs to be given to allow the changes to take effect, yet they are constantly in his ear in a blatant attempt to influence policy, and to keep anti semitism in the public eye. My fear is that their continual interference will actually lead to an increase in anti Semitic complaints as labour supporters vent their spleen at the party being controlled by a group that numbers fewer than 300000 in the UK, not all of whom have the best interests of the Labour Party at heart.
One of the key reasons for Brexit is the removal of protections for workers and standards. Imo it is all about removing safeguards in our society in favour of profit for a very small percent at the top of the tree, a significant amount of whom avoid paying tax, so the money just leaves the U.K and doesn’t trickle back into the system as it is supposed to - making the country and population poorer. However this small number of people fund the existence of the Conservative Party and control the majority of our media, so they can frame the debate by misinforming/exploiting the public and have the political influence to exert real control. Hence we have a Government that don’t act in the interests of the country.
As we approach the anniversary of Johnson being voted into power, worth reminding ourselves of their pre election tactics. Extract from a BBC news item: A campaign group is calling for fact-checking of political advertising to be a legal requirement after what it describes as a "fake news and disinformation general election" ■ for the Conservatives, it said that 88% (5,952) of the party's most widely promoted ads either featured claims which had been flagged by independent fact-checking organisations including BBC Reality Check as not correct or not entirely correct ■ for Labour, it said that it could not find any misleading claims in ads run over the period
So sky have taken her off air for 6 months after breaking covid rules. There you go Boris......punishment...not change the rules to protect your mate.
Spot on . When the EWTD was introduced at BT , some people were up in arms , but it was introduced to help them . Some realised the fact over time , some did not . But now the preverbial will hit the fan . And with COT. ( Contractual overtime commitments ) it doesn’t bear thinking about .
Do any companies still pay overtime rates? I remember the days when Sunday was double time, general overtime rates were time and a half, reducing over the years to time and a third/quarter, until my last job paid overtime at flat rates. Sunday now seems to be ordinary flat rates for many/most.
My main experience of the WTD was in the NHS. You may remember in the bad old days junior doctors on acute wards and in A&E would often work 150+ hours in a week, which was regarded as part of their training. It didn’t seem to matter that mistakes threatening patients lives could be made because the houseman was dead on his/her feet. In my own profession as a Biomedical Scientist I often had to start work at 9am, work all day, all night, and all the following day with no sleep. The craziest part of all that was that because of the arcane pay structure, the busier you were, the less you got paid! Other professions had their own ways of inflicting torture on their members. All that changed with the WTD. Shift work was introduced meaning no one had to work more than 37 hours in a week, with a minimum 11 hour break between shifts. Even though junior doctors were at first specifically excluded from the WTD, by 2004 they were included, and by 2007 could only work 48 hours in a week. I cannot imagine what life for NHS staff will become like when the WTD is removed, as I would bet my house on happening now the current bunch of scumbag ****s have got their way and dragged out of the EU. The same will be true of workers in all other industries. “Paying for the pandemic” will become the excuse for cutting standards, slashing protections, and driving down wages.
My old company did 1.5 during the week out of hours, and 2.0 from 00:00 Saturday to 23:59 :59 Sunday. Remarkably, we needed to patch all the servers at a weekend
BT was just under 1.3 for weekday 1.5 for Saturday , just under 2 for Sunday . X3 for BH or x2 and a day off . Years ago they asked us to go on a 4vday week , we got a taxable payment of £1000.00 to do it . Theory was we would work our day in the week and not be needed on Saturday . so we still worked the Saturday and had a day off in the week !
Donald Trump is just a vile human being. He's now rushing through 5 federal executions before he leaves office to become the President that has overseen the most executions. Why would anyone take any satisfaction from that? Regardless of whether you believe in the death penalty or not, the idea of someone getting any sort of satisfaction from getting people executed is just repulsive. Donald Trump, you sir are an absolute ****.
