elster said:
What is the difference between exploitation and providing a service in your mind?
Factories - Is this pure exploitation to have shift work?
I did have a response to this typed out, but I'm losing the will to live, as it's something people will argue about forever and a day.
Factories etc., have established shift patterns, where mostly you'll either sign up for a single, permanent shift - or you'll be on a rotation, where you know your early, mid, late pattern, as it never changes.
Retail is more like:
Sunday: 12pm-6pm
Monday: 6am-3pm
Tuesday: Day off
Wednesday: 2pm-10pm
Thursday: 9am-6pm
Friday: 3pm-11pm
Saturday: 2pm-10pm
Next week will be completely different, the following different again - your day off will move, your late / mid / early pattern will be random (with only the working time directive to protect you - I recall the days of 3pm-11pm back to back with 6am-3pm the following day)
Sadly, the only union in the industry is powerless to do anything about this, and the employer will cite 'customer demand' as a reason to change things at the drop of a hat.
If the patterns were established, it wouldn't be so much of an issue - but they're not, and never will be, as the store wage budget fluctuates according to predicted trade - it's a moving feast, unlike many other industries.
As I posted earlier - I bailed over a decade ago, as the above shift patterns were screwing about with my head - I could barely sleep if I had the late / early combo, was surviving on pro-plus tablets - and ended up in hospital, absolutely burned out.
So the whole point of this is that working those hours doesn't suit you, and so no one else should be allowed to.
Factories don't all have regular shifts.
