AIBU to be annoyed about my husband being treated like a second class citizen by his employers

[petetong]

He has worked for them for the past 15 years but now that immigration is rife he no longer gets overtime and our standard of living has dropped. His employers don't care that he has done a job that nobody elese wanted for the past 15 years, they just want him to move on now that he is 55.

bummer!

only 55?

i must admit it came as a bit of a shock to me when i moved here how age discriminatory the work culture is here.

what field is he in?

sorry, don't understand. Is he cheaper or doing it less "efficiently" than someone else?

I meant is someone else cheaper than him.

It's shit, welcome to a modern capitalist society (it sucks).

He works in a warehouse. Quite frankly they absolutely couldn't get anybody to do the job for the first 15 years as it is one of those jobs that people would rather be on benefits than do. It is gutting that he has worked his arse off doing double shifts for them and now they are saying they have enough people (immigrants, I'm sorry but that is true) wanting the job and they are making it so awkward for him he feels like walking out (obviously he can't as he is unskilled and won't get another job). It makes my heart bleed to watch somebody who has given everything to his job and is now effectively being pushed out.

It's awful,

I think stories like this are really sad because you hear of so few people staying in jobs and being loyal.

But it's hardly the immigrants' fault, is it? It's the greedy employers'. Is the workplace unionized? If so, your DH should speak to his union rep. If not, he should investigate via the CAB or similar, what his rights actually are, because this sounds very very much like possible constructive dismissal/workplace bullying. WHich are still illegal, so at least if he has to go he probably stands a good chance of getting compensation.

quite right madamez. Definitely not any worker's fault, just bloody market forces and dodgy employers trying to get away with stuff.

Thank you, I know that if he needs to go he would have a case against them. They have always changed his shifts on a regular basis. Once they changed them four times in the first six months. This caused chaos in the job I was working. I now work in a school and don't take too much notice of the shift changes but am gutted for the other wives who have to go to their employers and change their holidays sometimes four plus times a year. I agree that it isn't the immigrants fault. I said when the borders were opened that this would have a big effect on us, but unfortunately I feel that when he is eventually pushed out an immigrant will walk into his job for a fraction of his wages without a second thought. sorry, but can't help feeling a bit gutted by this.

I see where you are coming from, pete.

DH is in a similar predicament.

The government doesn't give a shit, either, about living wages, they just want their cronies to have cheap labour.

Immigrants get screwed by the employers, too.

what job is it?

The UK are benefitting from offering cheap labour, so the government don't give a shit about the real people whose lives get screwed by trying to live on the poverty line.

My dh worked with the same place from leaving school til early 30's and they treated him like crap.

He had time off with appendicitis and because he 'took too long' to come back (he got an infection after the op, thanks to the NHS) they took his holiday entitlement off him, gave him a written warning over a mistake he made with a delivery he booked (no verbal warnings first, so would never have stood up in a court of law) and basically made his life a living hell!

We went to see CAB and they basically said, you could try for constructive dismissal, but it's very hard to prove. At the end of the day, our best option was for him to find a new job. Easier said than done when you've been in one job your whole life.

Luckily, because he's so good at his job he got headhunted by a competitor. 7 years on he's got a fab job, they treat him really well and he's highly respected.

He hadn't got qualifications, just experience...maybe your DH could start putting feelers out elsewhere???

Good luck with it all....

"it is one of those jobs that people would rather be on benefits than do"

there in lies the problem, much as I wholly support the welfare state system we have in this country it does seem to have left many people in this country thinking they won't do certain jobs. You can't blame 'immigrants' for being prepared to do the jobs people in the UK won't do. It might be worth you remembering that many of these 'immigrants' are very well qualified in their own country but are doing the jobs British people won't do. Your husband is sadly a victim in all this. I assume he was getting paid much more than the minimum wage but these 'immigrants' are doing it for less?

No, I don't blame the immigrants. That's almost all DH works with, and most are desperate.

Most are also not here to stay, they're here to work until they save enough to buy a house in their own land, or pay off some medical treatment or save for school or that.

It's not their fault they are poor.

It is the fault of the government to not put services in place to deal with the influx, to allow employers to get away with subjecting immigrants - or anyone - to unfair labour practices, to allow employers to discriminate against British workers because they know British people cannot afford to have such a cheap cost of living as the immigrant - particularly if he/she has a family - or is available to work 24/7, and to exploit people as cheap labour because they are desperate and don't know what the rules are.

So put the blame there.