Three women pitch up for a job. They mostly wear smart clothes and ingratiating smiles, but it makes no difference. No one shakes their hands or even looks them in the eye. The supervisor offers everyone coffee, without mentioning that they must pay for it. The women will come to this factory at night to clean, on zero-hours contracts. Some hurried training follows. But what they’re really being inducted into is an entire way of life: marginal, insecure, cut loose from the usual bonds of family and friends and workmates.
Tens of thousands who work and look after relatives could be forced into unemployment
Tens of thousands of people who juggle work with looking after ageing relatives could be forced into unemployment if care for the elderly is subjected to further cuts by the Government, campaigners have warned.
In praise of … Beyond Caring
This powerful account of the humiliation and uncertainty of life on a zero-hours contract brings the cost of the financial crisis to the stage
