Scab labour during the COVID crisis

[Dom Traynor]

So this army of NHS volunteers who are working for free? Am I the only one that thinks they are scabs stealing jobs from paid workers?

 

[Teaboy]

Real urbanz

 

[Dom Traynor]

I'm only asking because in NZ we are paying shit loads of extra workers actual wages to do this work whereas in the UK you seem to be getting fuckwits to work unpaid?

 

[cupid_stunt]

I'm only asking because in NZ we are paying shit loads of extra workers actual wages to do this work whereas in the UK you seem to be getting fuckwits to work unpaid?

Calling the volunteers 'fuckwits', actually demonstrates you are fuckwit.

 

[Dom Traynor]

Calling the volunteers 'fuckwits', actually demonstrates you are fuckwit.

Yeah what do you call people who do work that people are normally paid for after years of a deliberate programme to defund the NHS?

Your name seems pretty apt

 

[Teaboy]

I'm only asking because in NZ we are paying shit loads of extra workers actual wages to do this work whereas in the UK you seem to be getting fuckwits to work unpaid?

I'm with you mate. I bet they're only doing it because they get a free pass to leave the house. And don't get me started on charities.

 

[SpookyFrank]

So this army of NHS volunteers who are working for free? Am I the only one that thinks they are scabs stealing jobs from paid workers?

And here you are taking work from a unionised, industry certified fucking idiot by providing the same service for free.

 

[Dom Traynor]

So why can't the government just pay people to do the work?

 

[cupid_stunt]

Yeah what do you call people who do work that people are normally paid for after years of a deliberate programme to defund the NHS?

I don't think you know WTF the scheme is about, which is mostly supporting the vulnerable that are in isolation, by delivering food & medication, and making regular phone calls to check on people isolating at home. Much like so many 'pop-up' community projects are doing too.

All the people I know that have volunteered, are currently on furlough leave from the usual jobs, and are getting 80% of their usual wages paid by the government.

None of them are 'fuckwits'.

 

[Voley]

Even for a site that's well-known for finding fault with absolutely everything, this is pretty impressive.

 

[killer b]

It's a reasonable question - there's been 1.5 million people sign on in the last couple of weeks, why not create paid roles so these people can be employed?

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Dom Traynor seems to have got a bit carried away here, but there could be some aggro just over the horizon. A lot of people have recently become NHS temporary employees, almost all of them non-union. The danger is that they are so scared of losing their jobs and income that they will go along with any old shit just to keep their positions.

 

[CNT36]

I've been delivering prescriptions. I've thought about this. They have one paid permanent driver and have taken on volunteers . If we fucked 'em off what chance do you think there is of them paying anyone extra to do the job? The majority of people I deliver to pick it up themselves usually. Would it be better to bring back the 3 hour plus queues (due to a reduced staff they were open in two and three hour chunks) they had a couple of weeks ago with people coughing on each other then going home empty handed and the vulnerable and isolated going without or begging on facebook for someone to go get it for them?

 

[killer b]

I guess a lot of the people they're expecting to sign up will be people who're furloughed, who aren't allowed to take paid work under the terms of the furlough - again, there could be allowances in the terms of the furlough for this kind of temporary work. There's ways around this that doesn't involve giving a load of free labour to exploitative employers (in the case of the farmers). I'm less bothered about people volunteering in the NHS, but it's still something that needs considering.

 

[Saul Goodman]

So this army of NHS volunteers who are working for free? Am I the only one that thinks they are scabs stealing jobs from paid workers?

They couldn't care less about the exhausted NHS staff they're pretending to be helping.
They're cunts, aren't they. They're probably only doing it in the hope they'll get their faces on telly, and to laugh at those stuck at home.

 

[CNT36]

It's a reasonable question - there's been 1.5 million people sign on in the last couple of weeks, why not create paid roles so these people can be employed?

I don't know much about the latest benefits changes but would they be any better off with a few hours work a week? You have to wait weeks anyway to see the money don't you? Wouldn't a couple of hours playing doctors and nurses reset the wait and increase that wait making them worse of. Maybe you could condense several volunteer jobs into full time work but that's a different prospect. Making a few possibly upsetting phonecalls versus doing it all day probably with fuck all support yourself with the added pressure of a supervisor and targets as soon as your paid is a different thing. Same with driving around at your own pace versus x amount of drops an hour and long shifts to make it pay. Fine for experienced drivers (I pointed a friend of a friend towards a pharmacy who lost their job) but for others maybe a problem.

 

[Teaboy]

It's a reasonable question - there's been 1.5 million people sign on in the last couple of weeks, why not create paid roles so these people can be employed?

There has been a lot of criticism of the government which may or may not be justified. Not spending money is not one of them.

 

[killer b]

There has been a lot of criticism of the government which may or may not be justified. Not spending money is not one of them.

how the money is spent could be though.

 

[platinumsage]

I’d don’t think you’d find anyone willing to join a picket line outside a pharmacy to stop volunteers collecting prescriptions.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

I guess a lot of the people they're expecting to sign up will be people who're furloughed, who aren't allowed to take paid work under the terms of the furlough - again, there could be allowances in the terms of the furlough for this kind of temporary work. There's ways around this that doesn't involve giving a load of free labour to exploitative employers (in the case of the farmers). I'm less bothered about people volunteering in the NHS, but it's still something that needs considering.

That’s not a bad idea at all. How it would work, administratively, is a different matter. But maybe something the health unions should raise with the Governnment.

Calling this scabbing is bollocks though. For a start there is no dispute and they are not displacing other workers

 

[killer b]

There's already a lot of voluntary stuff goes on in the NHS, and tbf a lot of the stuff they're asking for people to volunteer to do are broadly similar to that kind of stuff. But the transport of patients - for example - is definitely something that should be paid, and really is displacing a potential worker.

 

[redsquirrel]

It's a reasonable question - there's been 1.5 million people sign on in the last couple of weeks, why not create paid roles so these people can be employed?

Indeed I certainly would not call any of these people scabs but Dom Traynor is absolutely right that they should be being paid.

 

[gosub]

I'm only asking because in NZ we are paying shit loads of extra workers actual wages to do this work whereas in the UK you seem to be getting fuckwits to work unpaid?

I'm a little concerned you may not be adequately social distancing, how close to the coast are you?

 

[mauvais]

To be fair to the OP, I asked about this a while back (and had some decent replies), it's not exactly a nuts line of thought.

NHS Volunteer Responders

Anyone sign up for this? https://www.goodsamapp.org/NHS According some MSM they have 170k applications already

www.urban75.net

 

[Proper Tidy]

I think it's sound in this particular set of circumstances but should be used when a normality returns to lay out a new set of demands - we the public did this, we did this, we did this, we've faced social damage and financial ruin and throughout it all we looked after each other. Now this means we have this, we have this, we have this. Jobs, homes, public services, social protection, so on. Build from it.

 

[ska invita]

Get the squadies to do it. If we're going to pour all that endless money into the military get the doing something useful. Though not in uniform please

 

[binka]

I guess a lot of the people they're expecting to sign up will be people who're furloughed, who aren't allowed to take paid work under the terms of the furlough - again, there could be allowances in the terms of the furlough for this kind of temporary work. There's ways around this that doesn't involve giving a load of free labour to exploitative employers (in the case of the farmers). I'm less bothered about people volunteering in the NHS, but it's still something that needs considering.

Furloughed people can take on other paid work already

Subscribe to read

www.ft.com

Edit - shit ft paywall link. Basically everyone can get out into the fields to pick fruit and get paid for it

 

[tim]

So this army of NHS volunteers who are working for free? Am I the only one that thinks they are scabs stealing jobs from paid workers?

In the past, Contrarian journalists built lucrative careers making points like that. Now the food on their children's plates is being scraped off and scoffed by internet blacklegs like you: ((Brendan O'Neill))

 

[deeyo]

So this army of NHS volunteers who are working for free? Am I the only one that thinks they are scabs stealing jobs from paid workers?

No, they're not.
Trying to save somebody drowning aint scabbin on the lifeguard, driving someone seriously injured to the hospital aint scabbin on the ambulance crew, it might be stupid, you might not succeed and you might end up being in the way of the professionals and actually making a bad situation worse, but its not scabbing. Its doing what you can for people in need in an emergency.
Actually, one could argue that paying unqualified and untrained people to do qualified work would be closer to scabbing than asking for volunteers to help out with what they can, but its probably fairer to say that nz seems to be handling this aspect of the crisis better than the uk, perhaps you were better prepared?

The time for questions comes later; Why are national health services understaffed and underfunded? Why werent the person drowning taught to swim in school? Where were the lifebouys? Should big farms and supermarkets be nationalised if they cant pay workers proper wages and/or function in a pandemic? Maybe they should be run by workers and farmers councils? Actually, what Proper Tidy said.

 

[Gramsci]

I wouldn't totally dismiss the OP.

This is an issue before the pandemic. Cuts in youth services meant closure of my local adventure playground. Due to local volunteers its re opened.

There are several volunteer run youth programmes in my area.

Run by volunteers along with small charity funding to employ trained youth workers.

imo Voluntary work is work. Its just that its not paid for. Its doing stuff that needs doing to keep society going.

Im a volunter from before this pandemic. Now volunteering has become front page news.

tbf Im not all that happy that Im a voluntering some of my time to help keep an adventure playground going. Youth services should be run by paid staff. Given I live in capitalist society volunteering doesn't pay the bills.

I also think local and now central Government are over keen ( in some ways) to encourage volunteers. It gets them free labour.