 |
| A cuddly looking Ken Loach - one of our great film makers |
I was wondering why I am so reluctant to go and see Ken Loach’s latest film Sorry We Missed You, which is about the evils of working on zero hours contracts, just as I did not bother with the last I, Daniel Blake about the iniquities of the benefits system. I used to love Ken Loach films but the last one I liked was The Angel’s Share, a comedy about stealing some super-expensive whisky which nevertheless had a riveting and disturbing scene near the beginning about the damage caused by the hero committing a violent crime.
It is probably the word ‘enjoy’ which contains the reason. I expect to enjoy the experience of sitting in a darkened room for a couple of hours and watching some other version of real life. It is almost always real life, incidentally, as I do not care for cartoons, obviously unrealistic superhero movies or those heavy on CGI effects which I never find realistic. The story and the characters in it have to be believable for me to feel that the whole exercise is worthwhile.
Loach is nothing if not down to earth. There are no fancy special effects, no unrealistic shoot outs or superpowers, just ordinary people getting on with their lives, often beaten down by a system which is too strong for them. This is the sort of stuff I normally like but I cannot bring myself to fork out the best part of ten pounds to watch some poor bloke’s life going to ruin because he works as a van driver on a zero hours contract that strangles him. And I do not like being battered about the head being told what to think while at the cinema.
For years I worked on what was effectively a zero hours contract for a company that offered me work when it needed me but did not provide any guarantees that it would employ me when it did not. That was fine by me: a couple of years working in an office for the government was quite enough of job security and so I developed the skills which meant I had enough work to pay the bills and support my family while the children grew up.
The point was that the company needed people like me to be willing, ready and able to work for them. They did not provide guarantees or benefits like pensions, maternity or sickness pay and only reluctantly did they eventually fork out holiday pay. This did not worry me in the least. Like many other people I actually preferred the freedom/insecurity of freelancing.
The system worked in balance because it suited both parties – freedom for the employee (contractor if you prefer) and low overheads for the company. I enjoyed being part of this system and thought that it showed how capitalism should work. The company looked after those who worked for it because it was in their interest to do so. They needed good people on the ground to keep their customers happy while we liked the money we could make without being tied too closely to a company ethos. When the company identity became all-important, I simply moved on. I could afford to, having made enough already to slow down.
Ken Loach is having none of that. His film is about the evils of capitalism and the misery it causes. He said in a Big Issue interview that the scenario he portrays is how capitalism is supposed to work, periodically throwing people on the scrapheap and then bringing on some other sucker to take their place. The state can then clear up the mess while the company prospers in its irresponsible way and the victim of its ruthlessness is simply thrown aside.
But capitalism is more complicated than that. The company I worked for was not morally better than the one the van driver worked for. It just had a need for committed and loyal people who, in the modern jargon, interfaced with their customers. They knew that word of mouth recommendation and repeat business were an important part of their success and the people they employed could help to generate that. As most people only have fleeting contact with the driver who delivers their parcels, this is not a major factor for a delivery company. Keeping costs down and scheduling issues are more important for them so they tend to be more ruthless and less invested in employee loyalty than the one I worked for.
The case of the Scottish plumber shows how loyalty to and care for your employees can backfire. Murray Menzies paid into a pension scheme for the small number of employees he had in his plumbing business and now, having retired and looking forward to a comfortable old age, he suddenly finds himself with a bill for over a million pounds. The problem was that some other companies had either defaulted on their commitments or gone bust and he is being made liable for a part of the pensions of employees of these other companies.
Menzies had no idea he could be liable for this debt until he found himself presented with the bill when he himself retired. The rules had been tightened because people like Robert Maxwell had been plundering the pension funds of their employees to cover debts caused by their own poor management. Menzies cannot afford to pay the bill, even if he sold his house, and he is not alone. Over 500 small firms and their owners face these kind of debts.
The big problem in our society is gaining a balance between freedom and fairness: allowing successful and enterprising people the right to make money whilst guaranteeing the less fortunate a decent standard of living, of combining the innovation of capitalism with the safety net of socialism. This is obviously not an easy task but we might start by acknowledging that the unfairness extends to people in business, like Mr Menzies, who tried to do the right thing for his employees and now finds himself crippled by rules which were designed to increase fairness. It is hardly surprising that companies use zero hours contracts when you see what happened to Murray Menzies. I wonder if Ken Loach intends making a film about him.
For more on the Scottish plumber and his problem go to: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-50157515
____________________
Apologies for the slightly late posting of this piece caused by some last minute tourist guiding work
You can read about this on my other blog: diaryofatouristguide.blogspot.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment