Modern Day Slavery

Femme_Fatale

Jeez plenty of companies in Ireland don't recognise unions.

Ok what the OP described is not literally slavery but some companies really do take the piss. And people can be disingenuous all they like and go on about how he's moaning about nothing (even though they fully know he isn't) and at least it's a job and bla bla but there is nothing wrong with recognising when companies treat staff like dirt.

Sonia Sparse Ink wrote: »

Or, maybe, he could get off his hole and work for himself.

Doing what? With what? You need money to set up a business, to market it, to drive customers to it. And it's a big risk - lots of businesses fail. Pointless making it out to be just this really straightforward thing that can easily be done.

wicklowstevo

its called having job, I suspose you could always check out and become a freeman or something if your not able for it.

Nemeses

I work 40+ hours a week, where do I sign up?

wicklowstevo

hey if you don't like the conditions id say theres many many willing folks to take your place

Femme_Fatale

Or... the companies could improve the conditions.

"Just leave" is a pointless thing to say anyway. People have to have a new job in the bag before they leave.

TheLastMohican

Now, instead of Corporation put Tommy Connors and instead of employees put these unfortunates. These despicable fuckers, that treated the unfortunate people that fell in their path for sheer greed and cruelty should be horse whipped. A blight on any nation. The piclinks will open. Now this is slavery:

Slave Trader's Missing Millions

Sunday 15th July 2012By Donal MacIntyre









Traveller has £3m stashed in off-shore accounts

NOTORIOUS rogue builder Tommy Connors, convicted of slavery this week, has a staggering stg£3million stashed in offshore bank accounts. The millionaire's claims that his brutal reign of forced labour was part of the Irish traveller tradition failed to convince a jury at Luton Crown Court.
Cops investigating the sordid racket found Connors senior (52), had £1million in various bank accounts, while another £2m was spread around family members. The Sunday World previously exposed the traveller as Britain's worst rogue builder, who was banned by one council authority from touting for work.
Trial judge Justice Michael Kay rejected the Connors family claim that they were the victims of racism.
"The way these defendants brutalised, manipulated and exploited men who had already plumbed the depths of despair as homeless beggars is pure evil," he added.
Homeless

Investigators are now focused on bank accounts held by family members in the Isle of Man. The Connors family held such sway over the men they recruited off the streets and from homeless shelters that several refused to testify against their captors. One slave, who is still working for the family, broke down in tears when he heard that his gang boss, James John Connors (34) and his wife Josie (31), were convicted of "exploiting and brutally manipulating" men in forced servitude.


Just hours after the couple brought to four the number of Connors family members convicted of involvement in the slave trade, one worker, believed to be suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, continued work on the family plot at the now notorious Greenacres site in Leighton Buzzard.

Speaking to the Sunday World David Radcliffe (57), said: "I was in tears at the news. It's disgusting. They should never have been convicted. They are my family and it's all a load of b****x."
Police believe that he is too institutionalised to understand his predicament and all efforts to explain it to him have failed. Radcliffe has been working with the Connors for 15 years and has seen many others come and go, including many of those who testified against the family.
The Court heard that homeless foreigners, drug addicts and alcoholics were harvested off the streets, had their benefits taken off
them and were forced to work in the Connors' tarmac business and engage in various building scams. Some said that they were forced to clean the family toilets, had to sleep on faeces-encrusted beds and had access to a shower only once every three months
at a nearby public toilet.


Despite the Judge describing the family as pure evil and sentencing James John Connors to 11 years and his wife Josie to four years, Radcliffe is still loyal to his brutal masters. He said that when the police raided the site with 200 officers last September he refused to go and had to be dragged away.

Social workers and police tried to explain what Stockholm Syndrome does to people, but Radcliffe does not accept their interpretation.
"This is my life. I know what it is and I am not suffering from that. They have done nothing wrong. It is a Police vendetta," Radcliffe said on Friday evening.
Police admitted that nine of the 21 slaves picked up refused to testify and give evidence, in what is often a common scenario in people trafficking and domestic violence cases. The Judge in the case said that the Connors' "disdain for the dignity of others is shocking, they were not good Samaritans but violent, cold, hard exploiters".
The accused look unmoved as the court heard how they effectively ran a modern-day slave racket, threatening to kill and break the bones of anyone who thought of leaving. Prosecutors and victims painted a horrific picture in the worst servitude case heard since slavery was banned just over 200 years ago in these islands.
Horrific



Washing facilities amounted to a cold water tap for the slaves and there was also no light or heating. The horrific ordeal ended and the investigation began when one of the victims ran from a canvassing operation in Dunstable and hid in the garage of a vacant house to avoid the family last July. The following September, over 200 police officers raided the Connors caravan site and seven of the family were arrested.

Four members of the traveller family were convicted, including family boss Tommy Connors snr. The jury convicted him on one count of holding a person in servitude, one of forced labour and one of assault. Tommy snr's son, Patrick (20), was convicted of conspiracy, forced labour and assault charges.
His daughter Josie and her husband James John Connors were convicted of servitude and forced labour. James John was also convicted of assault. It is understood that a number of the slaves are considering civil actions for damages.
The jury failed to reach verdicts on several counts regarding three other sons,Tommy (27), Johnny (28), and James (24), and the prosecution have said that they will go for a retrial on some of the charges.

gozunda

becost wrote: »

Working for a Multinational (office); Being told when you'll start and when you'll finish, as in "we're here till 10 tonight". Being told what to wear. Being told when you can take a break. Being told how to speak. Being timed going to the toilet. People constantly looking over your shoulder. The company expected to be your number 1 priority over everything else. :eek: And it goes on and on. And they didn't even pay well. I threw off the shackles a few years ago but still bare the scars.

Our government had given allowed employers rights over and above the any rights of employees


Don't like the sh*te conditions under which you have to work? - then get yourself a anotherr job

Want some job security - ditto

Want Health and safety conditions as per national regulations - unless you a have a squilan an in a bank account - you can't prove nothing

Want to report unsafe and illegal work practices - forget it the HSA have all the relevance of a minnow in a shark tank

Want to report bullying by management - you don't have a chance in hell

Want to get screwed and taken for a ride .. Sign on the dotted line and believe that your employer are actually doing you a favour employing you ..

The government are so interested. In maintaining the live register they don't give a dam what conditions employees work under

Want to work for a profit making companies for just €50 - then sign here
Company don't have to give u feck all in return

Why do you think the Chinese are starting to put in call centres in Ireland?

Because work conditions and wages are actually lower than mainland China

Go Figure....

bnt

If you think it's bad here, you should read about how Dubai was built: hundreds of thousands of workers from South Asia, fighting for construction jobs that they know are poorly-paid and highly restrictive, with e.g. passports being held by the contractors so they can't leave. Struggling to send money home to their families, but they accept it because it's still more than they can get at home, which is nothing.

Labour is like any commodity: its value is related to its scarcity. It's basic economics: why should any buyer pay €n for something when they can get it for €n-1 ? Threaten to withdraw your labour, to improve your pay or conditions? That might work ... as long as there's no-one waiting to take your job at reduced pay or conditions.

du Maurier

rainbowdrop wrote: »

Who you think you is, Kunta Kinte?

No, his name is Toby:)

du Maurier

floggg wrote: »

No, it's Toby.

Sorry. If I could just delete my post now;)

Barna77

Currently reduced to a 3 day week, I'm overloaded with work. As a result my boss has asked me a few times to stay a few extra hours to cope with the workload .... Pretty unfair and slaverish...

du Maurier

becost wrote: »

That's what I'm doing now and averaging a grand a week for less than 1 hour a day. And I regularly work drunk/in my underwear/puffing away on e cigarettes/unwashed/unshaven/farting like mad/etc,etc. It was 10 years ago that I was in that situation.



Your surviving not living.

What is it you do now?

becost

du Maurier wrote: »

What is it you do now?

Online marketing. But you have to think outside the box to make money from it. Most people that try it can't make a living from it.

Frank Lee Midere

becost wrote: »

Online marketing. But you have to think outside the box to make money from it. Most people that try it can't make a living from it.

Yeah. I've seen those adds.

gozunda

du Maurier wrote: »

What is it you do now?

IBEC Ministry of information by any chance?. - always appears to be the same politburo infiltration to workers discussions ... ;-].

GTDolanator

They say slavery has been abolished except for the convicted fellon

Frank Lee Midere

GTDolanator wrote: »

They say slavery has been abolished except for the convicted fellon

Yeah those lads are worked to the bone.

wicklowstevo

in the end any thread here seems to revert to travellers are evil, I agree by the way but sometimes the journey is entertaining :-)

rustedtrumpet

Give it a rest Kanye West.

TheLastMohican

du Maurier wrote: »

No, his name is Toby:)

Is that you Daphne?

Karl Stein

Ah shure it's me culture to keep slaves boss.

No. You're just a greedy bastard.

du Maurier

gozunda wrote: »

IBEC Ministry of information by any chance?. - always appears to be the same politburo infiltration to workers discussions ... ;-].

No, was just wondering what that person did.

du Maurier

TheLastMohican wrote: »

Is that you Daphne?

Is that you, Daniel?

gozunda

du Maurier wrote: »

No, was just wondering what that person did.

Ok grand so....

gozunda

du Maurier wrote: »

No, was just wondering what that person did.

Ok grand so...

suicide_circus

the hellish proposed new ts&cs that Dublin bus workers are being asked to accept, outlined below, equate to modern day slavery!

Stabshauptmann wrote: »

What are the proposed changes the bus drivers are striking over:

Labour Court recommendations

• No proposal to reduce core or basic pay
• Reductions in rest day and overtime pay on Sunday to double time from 2.5
• Rest day rate on Monday to Saturday to be paid at a time and a quarter, down from time and a half
• Monday to Saturday overtime to be paid at time and a quarter for the first two hours and time and a half thereafter, rather than time and a half every hour
• Public holidays on a normal day to be paid at time and one quarter plus statutory entitlement
• Public rest day rate and overtime to be paid at time and one quarter plus statutory entitlement
• The court also recommended that a total of four days self-certified sick leave should be permitted in a calendar year with no more than two such days allowed in a six-month period. This is a change from the seven days a year that drivers currently have.

bumper234

Lack78 wrote: »

As the saying goes, "Working is the blackmail of survival". It's true, we are largely forced to spend 8+ hours of our day going through an arbitrary process to put food on the tablet and working with people we may not necessarily like. The work can be boring, the hours unsociable, the commutes time consuming and the stress and anxiety can be dangerous to our health.

Employers don't care about your health unless it directly affects their bottom line, we are treated like drones and forced to sit at a desk all day and potentially micromanaged, bullied and intimidated into submission.

I actually made a video in response to this thread:

No one is "forcing" any of us to work 8 hours a day and yes sometimes work can be hard/boring/stressful but no one MAKES us do it. Any one of us could quit tomorrow and go on the dole but then no mortgage no holidays no beers at the weekends no cars no nice clothes. We force ourselves to work these jobs so we can have the nice things we want but the choice is there to not have them.

Blisterman

bumper234 wrote: »

No one is "forcing" any of us to work 8 hours a day and yes sometimes work can be hard/boring/stressful but no one MAKES us do it. Any one of us could quit tomorrow and go on the dole but then no mortgage no holidays no beers at the weekends no cars no nice clothes. We force ourselves to work these jobs so we can have the nice things we want but the choice is there to not have them.

Fair point. Even the lowest paid worker in Ireland today has an infinitely easier life than the majority of people throughout history. Comparing it to slavery is ridiculous. Especially when slavery still exists in the world today.

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/uploads/documents/doc_18561.pdf

smurfjed

Funnily enough I was reading about S. Arabia and its getting rid of slavery only recently.

They didnt get rid of it, they just changed the name.....