CNN article

Clippings from news sources involving fashion freedom and other gender equality issues.
Stevie D
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Re: CNN article

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weeladdie18 wrote:Some of our members have reported some degree of success in wearing their skirts to work.
Other members do not consider it is not worth the aggravation of being a Man in a Skirt in a working environment .
One may become a target in a company staff cull.
When I worked for the British Geological Survey 1994 - 2006, I frequently wore skirts to work when I was office-based. There was the occasional mild curiosity, but after that no-one bothered and we all just got on with our various jobs. Field-work was different of course; full weatherproof hiking/safety equipment; hard hats, safety boots, the lot.
Stevie D
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Sinned
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Re: CNN article

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Workers at ASDA are now being asked to sign a new employment contract with termination if not signed. Their new contract brings it more in to line with the one I am on. We were given the same "choice". We have available thermal underwear for winter and safety boots as per health and safety conditions.
I believe in offering every assistance short of actual help but then mainly just want to be left to be myself in all my difference and uniqueness.
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Daryl
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Re: CNN article

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dillon wrote:Although Tahitian culture seems in this regard more advanced than Western culture, it seems to still segregate, even if into three cubbyholes rather than two. I think cubbyholes are invalid in total. What’s wrong with allowing people to define themselves? Maybe a feminine man, or masculine woman, fits too close to the boundary of society’s sorting pens. Why must anyone define him/her-self (or themself for those for whom language has no relevance) voluntarily pigeonhole him/her-self to suit those who can’t understand that gender and physical sex characteristics are not necessarily linked.
I don't even understand what language about "defining" oneself means. The only issue, as far as I am concerned, is society's authority for enforcing arbitrary modes of behaviour, fashion, etc. on the individual. The principle of individual freedom ought to be entirely sufficient by itself, if we pay serious attention to it. Freedom to dress, love and be as we are doesn't require any pigeonholes.
Daryl...
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skirtyscot
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Re: CNN article

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Sinned wrote:Workers at ASDA are now being asked to sign a new employment contract with termination if not signed. Their new contract brings it more in to line with the one I am on. We were given the same "choice". We have available thermal underwear for winter and safety boots as per health and safety conditions.
How can they enforce that?
"Here's your new contract, you must sign it or you will be fired."
"Fired for what, exactly? Explain to me how I will be in breach of my current contract if I don't."
"Errr...."

This actually happened at a former workplace of mine. The bosses came up with a new contract, and sent them out to everyone to sign. After a couple of weeks the HR woman came to speak to one of the stragglers.
"You haven't signed your new contract. You need to sign it."
"I'm all right, thanks, I've got one already and it's fine."
Unfortunately for the HR woman, she was speaking to a lawyer!
Keep on skirting,

Alastair
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moonshadow
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Re: CNN article

Post by moonshadow »

I take it you all don't have "at will" employment over yonder.

I've never labored under a contract in my life.
-Andrea
The old hillbilly from the coal fields of the Appalachian mountains currently living like there's no tomorrow on the west coast.
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Sinned
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Re: CNN article

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Moon, unfortunately they can do that. It's termed "redundancy" and that can be for any number of reasons. It's legal and not signing a contract of employment can be one of them. Redundancy was originally meant for when a company was cutting back on the workforce due to financial or market conditions but now it can be used to trim back a number of employees in order to hire new staff. There is no such thing as job security these days. Even if it weren't legal an employer can make working conditions unpleasant without breaching legal conditions. Changing shifts to ones that are no longer suitable, changing the role from say checkout ( which is liked ( to filling shelves ( which may not be liked ) using examples applicable to my store.

On the other hand I don't feel any real loyalty to my employers anymore. As I often say, "I go to work. I do something in between, hopefully useful. I go home." As I approach "retirement" in March next year when I get my state pension I become vulnerable to redundancy. I enjoy the job. I don't really want to give up a stress-free role interacting with customers and as long as I am mentally competent and physically able then I will probably continue, at least for another year.As I said, I was given the same choice of sign or leave 3 years ago.
I believe in offering every assistance short of actual help but then mainly just want to be left to be myself in all my difference and uniqueness.
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Re: CNN article

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Sinned wrote: On the other hand I don't feel any real loyalty to my employers anymore.
Nor I. I learned early on that employers demand a one-sided relationship.

I try to do a good job, but I am emotionally detached from it, and the company.
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skirtyscot
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Re: CNN article

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Sinned, I came across an article about your predicament:
https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/wor ... jp_reshare

Undoubtedly illegal. As the man says, what use is a contract if one party can tear it up at will?
Keep on skirting,

Alastair
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r.m.anderson
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Re: CNN article

Post by r.m.anderson »

And add another innuendo ultimatum "binding arbitration" waiving all preceding agreed upon clauses
forfeiting any legal rights !
"YES SKIRTING MATTERS"!
"Kilt-On" -or- as the case may be "Skirt-On" !
WHY ?
Isn't wearing a kilt enough?
Well a skirt will do in a pinch!
Make mine short and don't you dare think of pinching there !
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Sinned
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Re: CNN article

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As I said I was given the same ultimatum a couple of years ago with my current store and signed. Apart from Easter Sunday and Christmas Day we are open for business and all the rest of the days are considered normal days. Unfortunately my normal work day is Monday so unless I take a day off I work all the Monday Bank Holidays at normal pay rate. I have to choose between having Boxing Day off or New Years Day, not both. Breaks are not paid and don't kick in until the shift is 6 hours. We get our birthday off as a paid day. And that's it. My minimum contract hours are 16 and, whilst I generally get more than that, the current level is between 17.5 and 21 hours. I work set days and more or less set hours. I have the flexibility of being able to work more hours if they ask me to. Now I'm near retirement so class myself as semi-retired. I have enough income so the reduced [0] hours don't bother me. I enjoy what I do. I meet and talk to people, there's no stress and I like the colleagues I work with. If things change so that the job enjoyment was no longer there then I would leave. So while I sympathise with the ASDA workers I don't think that they will get anywhere with suing the company. We used to shop mainly at ASDA but now that an Aldi store has just opened down the road from us we shop there now. Prices are cheaper, the quality is great and there's little difference between theirs and branded products.

[0] Compared to the 37 hours that I used to work when office based. Often having to travel some distance to work and very stressful at times.
I believe in offering every assistance short of actual help but then mainly just want to be left to be myself in all my difference and uniqueness.
weeladdie18
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Re: CNN article

Post by weeladdie18 »

I have seen regular employed staff offered voluntary redundancy. These staff were then replaced by an annual package team supplied en bulk
by an employment agentcey .
Many did not consider this offer as they would have been unable to get short term employment as they were over 55 years old .
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Pdxfashionpioneer
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Re: CNN article

Post by Pdxfashionpioneer »

In the linked article, Mr. Carson complains that Walmart was managing ASDA as if it were in the United States 'where there is no Employment Law.' I need to take strong exception to that statement. By fair means and foul, the Republicans have eviscerated the National Labor Relations Act that was passed during the Great Depression of the 1930's. Their most recent tactic being not replacing members of the governing board when they have to roll off because of term limits. This makes it impossible for them to even meet for lack of a quorem!

Nonetheless, one thing is unshakeable in American business law and that is that "A deal is a deal!" Under US commercial law even verbal contracts are valid. The challenge is proving what was agreed to. I know an attorney who got a verbal agreement upheld on the strength of a scrap of paper with a number on it. The court took that as sufficient proof that the dispatching agency had committed to providing a load of that size to the independent trucker for him to haul.

My digression aside, in the US, the labor union and management negotiate a written labor agreement that stands until it expires. Before the expiration date, a new one will be negotiated or the workers can go out on strike. Walmart is notorious for taking every step possible, short of violence, to prevent their workers from organizing unions at their operations, but I have never heard of management unilaterally imposing a contract on a group of workers who have successfully organized a work place and been duly certified as the official bargaining agent!

How does British labor law work vis-à-vis unions?
David, the PDX Fashion Pioneer

Social norms aren't changed by Congress or Parliament; they're changed by a sufficient number of people ignoring the existing ones and publicly practicing new ones.
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skirtyscot
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Re: CNN article

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Pretty badly. Forty years of chipping away at workers' rights. Widespread work insecurity, Sinned being a case in point. Millions of zero-hours contracts and gig economy workers. Resistance to, and exceptions from, EU employment law. (Yet many of those same workers voted to "take back control of our laws" from Brussels.)
Keep on skirting,

Alastair
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moonshadow
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Re: CNN article

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skirtyscot wrote:Pretty badly. Forty years of chipping away at workers' rights. Widespread work insecurity, Sinned being a case in point. Millions of zero-hours contracts and gig economy workers. Resistance to, and exceptions from, EU employment law. (Yet many of those same workers voted to "take back control of our laws" from Brussels.)
Interesting. I would say that PDX has a pretty reasonable assessment of the employment situation here in the U.S., but I will add that in the U.S. employment matters fall heavily on state law. Granted, there are basic federal laws in place, such as a minimum wage, employment safety (OSHA), "right to know" law, and overtime law (time and a half for for over 40 hours). However states are free to enact more strict protections and standards.

Also, there is the matter of "union states" and "right to work states". Myself being a lifelong resident of Virginia, a "right to work" state, I can only speak for my experience in that matter. "Right to work" states are generally controlled by the republican party, and union states generally controlled by democrats. This was the case back before republicans and democrats took on other various social issues. Unions after all being a democratically controlled workforce, whereas those not involved in unions generally negotiate for themselves with regards to their relationships with their employer(s) on a "one on one" basis.

There is talk of Virginia dropping it's status as a "right to work" state. I'd be curious as to what changes lay in store should this become the case. As it stands, every job I have I bargained for on my own. As I stated earlier, I have never labored under a contract, I also have never paid union dues. Quite honestly this system has served me to my satisfaction. But I can imagine some advantages to union membership, I had a close brush with a union job back in 2002, when I worked as a non-union production worker (I loaded trucks) in a unionized sheet metal fabrication plant.

Union membership wasn't customary for production workers like myself in that plant, and were more reserved for the actual sheet metal fabricators/welders. As such, I still carried the union health card, and when I got into a situation regarding a minor workplace injury, I recall the union rose to my defense and ultimately saved my job. On the other hand, when production slowed, the union workers were the first to be let go, as was the terms of their contract. Non-union production workers like myself were exempt and were generally kept on payroll as long as we had a job to do.

At a FORMER job (and I can say this now), there were some VERY brief discussions of possibly engaging in some kind of union talks, however understand that in "right to work" states, such an activity is VERY DANGEROUS if you want to keep your job. If you're not careful you'll be fired quick fast and in a hurry. It was decided pretty quick that talks of union organization would just result in the shuttering of our department and our jobs would be farmed out to outside contractors as it was prior to the departments formation in 2013.

In my current gig, as we are the outside contractor, it would difficult to outsource it further. However as it stands the company generally treats us pretty well and I see no need to press on union issues at this time. I'm not prepared to say on a public forum such as this whether or not I'd sign a union card or not. My official answer being "not on your life" *

* see second to last paragraph.
-Andrea
The old hillbilly from the coal fields of the Appalachian mountains currently living like there's no tomorrow on the west coast.
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skirtyscot
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Re: CNN article

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Sinned, there could be worse to come. Look what your caring sharing employer's parent company is up to now.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... -staff-pay
Keep on skirting,

Alastair
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