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Liverpool Indymedia

Racism at Liverpool Post Office

Anon | 13.01.2010 20:39 | Anti-racism | Social Struggles | Liverpool

The Privitisation/Franchising of Post Office Counters has given opportunity for bosses to Hire and Fire at will and has led to a racist policy by proxy.

Sine the Post Office on London Rd was Privitised/Franchised out all the local staff have been sacked or forced to retire.
The new 'owner' -an asian businessman has a clear policy of only recruiting recent immigrants from the subcontinent. The jobs are not advertised at the local job centre. The suspicion is that a form of bonded labour system is being implemented whereby immigrants take out a loan with a middleman and most of their 'salary' goes staight to them- but this can't be proved though it's the usual means of exploiting workers from the subcontinet in Dubai etc. Point is the effect is to discriminate against local workers- that's racist plain and simple,

Anon

Comments

Hide the following comment

Exploitation, certainly

18.01.2010 00:35

I won't debate whether it's racist or not, but it's certainly exploitation. Are there any local trade unionists or workers rights advocates who speak the right language, who can contact these workers - away from the work premises perhaps - to explain to them what their rights are and encourage them to enforce them? I've had a few clients for whom I want to do legal aid work who can't prove their income, and they tell me "Asian businesses don't give wage slips". They're surprised when I tell them they have a legal right to one, and to know that their employer is paying their national insurance.
I get very irked by Asian business owners who come to Britain because they can have a better life than they would in their own relatively impoverished countries, but assume they can flout the laws that every reputable British-born business owner is forced to follow. They can't escape health and safety laws easily because the State enforces these without favour, but workers' rights are not given any priority, either by the State or Trade Union organisers. This is a bigger problem than it looks because a lot of rights are interdependent. If you can't prove what your income is, or that you have paid national insurance, you can be unable to claim social security benefits, end up with a reduced pension when you retire, be unable to get free legal advice under the legal aid scheme, and have trouble getting a bank account, credit, or acommodation (private landlords often want to know how much you're earning so they know if you can afford the rent.)
If this business is employing actual bonded labour, it's a bigger issue. When the Royal Mail contracted out this particular post office, what clauses did it put in the contract? Anything about the business being run legally and in a way that would not bring Royal Mail into disrepute? It might be possible to find out through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Carol Laidlaw


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