Image Suzanne Beishon

Image Suzanne Beishon   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Pensioners freeze, energy firms profit

Half of Britain’s pensioners were due to turn down the thermostat during January’s cold snap. Meanwhile, big energy firms are posting record profits – the big six will make over £1 billion for the first time.

A study reported in the Times found that five million over-65s were planning to risk their health – and lives – by sitting in the cold.

Energy prices have remained stubbornly high for consumers. Bosses are pocketing the difference of two years’ falling wholesale costs.


Sicko bosses sicken sick workers

One in four bosses now demands to interrogate you on your illness before granting sick leave. That’s pretty sick.

And one in ten workers is forced to make up the lost time, with similar numbers made to use annual leave for medical appointments.

The survey by a health insurer also found that even 30% of bosses who claim to be more sympathetic are “frustrated by the working time lost” to sickness.

Bullying, low pay and job insecurity are becoming normal. Have bosses considered that workers might just be sick of them?


Worker told to pay boss

A worker in London was outraged when a prospective boss asked her to pay £44 to attend an interview.

The Socialist has received copies of email correspondence between the prospective employee and a tutoring firm. After approving her CV, the boss instructed her to pay a £44 “registration fee”. This was apparently to pay for a DBS criminal record check – with no promise of a job.

The worker rightly declined the boss’s kind offer to pay his firm for an interview. She wrote to him that “I believe your company’s policy of making potential applicants and your own workers pay for their own DBS check is inappropriate and approaches the immoral.”