The National Government's new 'bright idea' to try to deal with the growing unemployment queue is to stick some unfortunate beneficiaries in minimum-wage jobs at McDonald's.
Under the deal WINZ will supply McDonald's with cheap labour - reportedly 7000 staff in service roles in the 30 more fast food outlets it intends to open over the next five years.
Preposterously McDonald's say that some of the jobs are "positions which provide a career path'. Yes, you will 'graduate' from serving quarter pounders to making coffees in McCafe.
While the National Governments seeks to offload some of the jobless on Ronald McDonald, it has announced today that there is no money available to fund extra places at the polytechnics.
According to Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics executive director Dave Guerin, between 6000 and 8000 students will be turned away because of the Government caps on expenditure.
Yes, New Zealanders will get shut out of polytechnic courses - but they can go and flip burgers instead.
On the National Party website we read:
'The National Party seeks a safe, prosperous and successful New Zealand that creates opportunities for all New Zealanders to reach their personal goals and dreams.'
Yeah, right.
Once again capitalism fails the vast majority of us.
ReplyDeleteMcDonalds will be ecstatic. Not only is the recession increasing their sales, soon they're going to have an endless supply of cheap labour.
How undignified. One week you're a skilled labourer at LWR, the next week you're flipping burgers at Maccers for minimum wage. But if you 'work really hard' you might just get the 'Team Leader' badge.
I can already hear the beneficiary bashers sharpening up their claws.
your whole blog life is meaningless steve if you remove legitimate comments,
ReplyDeleteI don't censor legitimate comments. Only comments that are abusive and/or incoherent are deleted.
ReplyDeleteSome of your comments have been abusive, including the use of the 'F' word. Other comments have been, frankly, barely intelligible.
As for the above comment - sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop. I know this is the age of texting but really...
Hey Steven, my first job at the age of 14 was at a McDonalds, and I made good friends and learnt some pretty awesome skills (not so much the flipping burgers bit) in leadership and self confidence. Now, 2 decades later I am a director in a company I am very proud of. Sometimes even the most ordinary jobs can instill pride in a job well done, depending on the type of person you are.
ReplyDeleteIf McDonald's is such the wonderful place you suggest it is, how do you explain the high staff turnover?
ReplyDeleteits the nature of the industry - its hard work, long hours, you get grubby if you are cooking, if you work on the counter on the night shifts you get abused by punters, if you want to progress through the ranks you need to learn all the facts/stats etc and there is a lot of it..people join thinking its an easy job, but it isnt. So they leave and go to kfc where the standards of cleanliness and discipline are not as high. its not for everyone.
ReplyDelete