COMMENTARY:
If you cut the work week to forty hours, which is still full-time, the associated health risks reduce significantly, plus to fill the void employers will have to hire more people, which will reduce unemployment. It’s a win-win.
Employers have taken advantage of workers for far too long by requiring them – especially salaried employees – to do the work of two people, even three people. Even though the workers often get paid well, it is a form of forced labor, thus enslavement. Understand that the employer doesn’t pay one employee working the jobs of three employees, what three employees would make combined. There’s a savings in the practice for the employer; that’s why they do it.
Sure, if the employee doesn’t like it, they could find a forty hour a week job. But even then, the job description is such that the employer requires way too much work in a forty hour period – essentially, again, requiring the employee to do the work of more than one person. If they don’t like it, there are lots of other people lining up to take their job. That’s often the reason for call offs. The employee is just too tired. Not to worry though, the other employees pick up the slack till it’s their turn to call off.
The reason why employers say they lose money when people call off is because they don’t hire enough people. They keep forgetting that people aren’t machines. They set their productivity projections way too high, so they can get bigger loans. They don’t take into consideration that people’s bodies and minds break down. ‘So what, we’ll hire somebody else, if they’re too weak’, thus perpetuating the forced labor cycle.
Increased rates of stroke and heart disease associated with working long hours coupled with family discord as a result of Mom and/or Dad rarely being home, and when home distracted by catch-up personal business and chores they need to do, increases costs to health insurance companies that have to pay out on health related claims.
It would be in the interest of these health insurance companies to lobby congress for a shorter work week. Employers are not going to do it on their own, since they’ve enjoyed for such a long time the fruits of forced labor.
It’s obvious that the days of the sweat shop are not over – it’s just that the employees get paid more to sweat. The results are the same, whether it’s in a factory or in a white-collar job. Working long hours, which creates a never-ending stressful condition, is injurious to the worker’s health.
Political candidates need to address workers rights, because the employers won’t do it, and the employee is afraid of losing their livelihood if they do it. Employer recommendations are important to the worker – so in essence there’s a gun to their head that prevents them from raising work-related issues. The health of the nation is at stake here.
Working longer hours increases stroke risk by up to 33%: study – Yahoo Finance.
HAPPY WHITE HORSE™ 