Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/564/6815
From The Socialist newspaper, 28 January 2009
No pay discrimination against young people
I STARTED working for Clarks in the shoe shop's busiest period - 'back to school'. At the same time two 16 year-old girls started and from the off I was dismayed at Clarks' employment policies.
Jack Youd, Salford and Central Manchester Socialist Party
I asked how much we would get paid. Because I was 18 I would receive £1.39 an hour more than the girls, even though we both began on the same day!
We were introduced to the 'shoe care line'; the products that we were encouraged to sell with the shoes such as polishes.
We were told that 2.75% of our sales must be from 'shoe care', one out of every three pairs of shoes we sold.
We were expected to sell £110-worth of shoes an hour, when I was getting paid £5.79 an hour! The manager could see on his computer in real time how workers were performing.
If he saw someone not meeting these requirements he would make sure you knew about it.
After the month and a half 'back to school' period it was announced that we were to get bonuses. Some full timers managed extraordinary sales figures such as £2,500 in a day.
Even so, the highest bonus was £97! I wonder how much the Clark's bosses get.
I left Clarks, along with one of the girls who began the same day as me. She left because of the pressure, working nine days in a row one time.
This shows the need to have a universal minimum wage of £8 an hour to reach £10 eventually and also to end all legal discrimination against young people.
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In The Socialist 28 January 2009:
Era of illusions in capitalism ending
The crisis in manufacturing: Fighting for jobs and living standards
No pay discrimination against young people
Slaughter in Gaza
Coventry protest over Gaza onslaught
Israel: Thousands march in Jaffa against Gaza massacre
Anti-racism
Stop the deportation of Yahya Al-Faifi
Socialist Party campaigns
Socialist councillor opposes Tory plans for education privatisation
Labour's abandoning of the working class
Croydon: Striking against academies
Scotland: Step up opposition to cuts
Socialist Party workplace news
Say 'no' to the Metro privateers
Amicus Unity Gazette left with egg on its face
Victory for left in Glasgow Unison
Solid support for Glasgow strike
Building a fighting Unison leadership
Education
Build a mass movement for free education
Marxist analysis: history
Germany 1919 The Spartacist uprising
International socialist news and analysis
Russia: Bosses sack auto-factory union leader
Courageous socialist activist, campaigning journalist and human rights activist
Socialist Party news
Socialist Party reviews
A People's History of Sports in the United States
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