Unsteady work is demoralising

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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I AM writing in response to the article on December 11 regarding the father-of-two imprisoned after dealing drugs to his friends.

Despite being a qualified lecturer I have had to take employment that, like Mr Gibbons, is subject to cuts in hours. And although I would not make the choice Mr Gibbons did, I can sympathise in the respect that I know the demoralisation that unsteady employment can bring, especially with a family to support.

The recession is often used as an excuse by employers to step up their aggressive tactics to attack the conditions of workers, whether in the form of pay cuts or an attack on regular employment.

More and more people are forced to take 'mcjobs' in order to, like Mr Gibbons, support their children. The side-effect from this being the loss of morale in workers, or worse, a rise in crime and suicides.

Unfortunately this is inherent within our capitalist system and the employers who instigate pay cuts and cuts in hours will never be bothered about the effects on their employees.

Fortunately there are glimmers of hope. The workers of Royal Mail and Axiom in Stoke are fighting back with strikes. Not, as many of your readers suggest, to be disruptive to the public, but because they believe that every worker should not have to find themselves in Mr Gibbons' situation.

As Orwell describes in Down and Out in Paris and London: "The mass of the rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit. Change places, and handy dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief?"

RICHARD STEELE

May Bank