Celebrate Decent Jobs Week

Instead of cursing the darkness, as Morning Star is wont to do;

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The growth of zero-hours contracts, along with other forms of precarious employment, is one of the main reasons why working people have seen their living standards worsen significantly in recent years.

“It is shocking that so many workers employed on these kinds of contracts are on poverty pay and miss out on things that most of us take for granted, like sick pay.”

She warned that Britain will continue to have a two-tier workforce where many are stuck in in-work poverty if the government does not create more well-paid jobs with regular hours.

For the Yanks reading the above italicized (by HSIB) term, it simply means labour working without any requirement on the employers' part that they provide any guaranteed number of hours to the workers. AKA, employment at will, in the rest of the civilized world.

It has passed over the heads of the editors of Morning Star (what's new) that that arrangement might be the only reason these workers have any employment opportunities at all, given their level of productivity--or the condition of the economy as a whole. I.e. it has raised the employment level of the UK.

So, light one candle, to read some Paul Krugman;

In Praise of Cheap Labor

Bad jobs at bad wages are better than no jobs at all.