Hospital Workers Forced To Take Pay Cut.

While bankers at J.P.Morgan have been busy losing yet more money and pocketing their unearned bonuses, while politicians across the world continue to put their ego's before the interests of people and pocket bribes while they're at it, domiciliary staff at Addenbrooke's hospital are being blackmailed to accept lower wages. This has nothing directly to do with the NHS, however, since the staff in question are employed by a private company called Medirest. They have told their employees that they can either accept this or lose their jobs. In microcosm it is a fine example of what is wrong with Britain. The cost cutting exercise by Medirest came about because their contract was up for renewal and the hospital, having had its money effectively cut by the Tories, had no choice but to negotiate a better deal. Medirest's immediate reaction was to cut its wage bill - not for the executives of course, but for the ordinary workers. Suddenly contracts of employment were not worth the paper they were written on (unless it was for an executive of course) and blackmail became the favoured tactic. This then is the destiny that the Tories have in mind for the rest of the NHS as it is increasingly privatised by stealth. Now a whole raft of ordinary people will find their disposable income curtailed and they will, innevitably, spend less in the wider economy. This will have a knock-on effect and, as demand continues to plummit, more and more businesses will either go bust or cut wages too. That is how austerity works - or rather doesn't work. Selfish, stupid and self-defeating, austerity is nothing less than a opportunity for rich people to increase their own wealth, pauperise the already poor and cut their tax bill at the expense of the rest of us.