Tesco and companies like them have enormous power over the lives of their workers, and their behaviour shows that they can’t be trusted writes Tesco worker Alex Francis.
I’ve only been working for Tesco for a matter of months, but already its contempt for its workforce is clear; I am still waiting to receive my own uniform, I have been searched without basis for stolen money down to my shoes, and they even have the arrogance to staple adverts to my pay cheques. But these facts pale in comparison to their attempt to fire me illegally. In the week leading up to Christmas I was informed that the store was not making enough profit and as there is a realistic limit to the number of people who need to buy groceries in a given area, the only solution was to stop paying a member of staff. This lay-off would not reflect a decrease in the work needed at the store, the other staff would just have to work faster to make up for my absence. I was chosen because of a ‘last one in, first one out’ policy and because my contract was temporary.
As I was fully entitled, I requested a printed copy of my contract. Although I was assured this was unnecessary, it emerged upon closer inspection that my contract was not temporary as had been assumed, and therefore my attempted dismissal went against employment law. Had I not investigated this myself the mistake would have gone undetected and I would not now have a job.
Any employer has a duty to their employees to keep them in a job unless they have absolutely no other choice. ‘Not enough profit’ is not a good enough reason to fire somebody. Tesco made around £2.5 billion from its UK stores alone in its 2010 to 2011 financial year and is hardly losing money. Companies like Tesco have an enormous amount of power over the lives of their workforce and their behaviour shows that they simply cannot be trusted with such power.
This worrying attitude is by no means confined to Tesco. Although I cannot disclose any more than vague details, a friend of mine told me last year of an incident at another popular Norwich supermarket where she worked. After emailing the company’s suggestion service requesting them to consider their irresponsible waste policy, a fellow employee was threatened with disciplinary action from above. This example of direct intimidation of staff is in sharp contrast to the claims this particular company makes of accountability to its consumers.
The idea of the ‘American Dream’ is not one that has permeated much into this country, but the idea that it’s OK to be poor now because one day – if you work hard enough – you might be wealthy in the future is often used as a justification for capitalism. The notion of ‘wealth creators’ is in sharp contrast to such a dream, the assumption being we are all lost without an affluent minority to create the wealth for us.
To say that the West is a land of untold possibilities where anyone can start their own successful business is simply not true in our present point in history; around three quarters of UK groceries are sold by either Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda or Morrison and one could walk down any high-street in Britain and be faced with the same recurring brands. Tesco is the third biggest retailer in the world after Wal-Mart and Carrefour –tellingly based in the US and France respectively. This world of massive multi-national corporations increases the rich-poor divide daily and gives more and more political power to massively wealthy individuals. The current attempts at censorship of the internet through corporate claims of copyright infringement show how business shapes the law and the rights of the world’s citizens.
Through company propaganda Tesco tries to cultivate a spineless mentality in its staff, a mentality which would have them bin vast quantities of edible food while the homeless starve outside the automatic doors, and condemn those who they catch bin-diving. A mentality that loyalty to the company will be rewarded with slight improvements to pay or a higher position over your fellow staff. A mentality that keeps the irrelevant expendable majority begging for scraps from the masters’ table.
In my humble opinion humanity is meant for something greater than to be willingly enslaved by twisted consumerism. When did companies become an end in themselves, rather than a means to an end? When did a job become an end in itself, as opposed to a means to an end? And when did money become an end in itself, rather than a means to an end?
