| Dinkum's informed their workforce last
week that in a desperate attempt to save jobs, they would move over to a
job-share system. Rather than face unemployment, their workers are being offered
the chance to work on a half-time basis where two people will share the
responsibility of one. "We're giving our workers a choice. They can take
redundancy if they prefer but if they want to stay with us, we can only offer
them half their previous earnings," said a spokesman for the factory. Beryl Harris, 47, is one of the many workers who have opted for the job-share arrangement. "I know what it's like to be unemployed. I've watched my husband lose his self-respect in these last two years." Sunnington has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Ron has been looking for work since Dinkum's broke the news to him two and a half years ago. "I've probably applied for more than a hundred jobs: as a laborer, a watchman and so on and I even tried to get a job as a dustman once--bnt nobody wants a guy of my age." Ron's experience is not uncommon. "The streets are full of broken men and the employment exchange is one of the worst places imaginable." Ron and Beryl are already starting to worry about whether their two teenage children will find work when they leave school. "It's bad enough with two of us trying to keep busy at home in the afternoons now but I have nightmares thinking about four of us without jobs," says Beryl. When asked what they think of Dinkum' s new job-share plan, Ron and Beryl Were in agreement. "At least they're trying to find a solution. It' s not their fault that this government of this country has made such a mess of things. Anything's better than living on state benefit and waking up every day without anything to do." Ron recalled cases of an unemployed man committing suicide in a nearby town. "I can see why he did it but I'll never get to that stage." It's a widely recognized problem that people who do not work can become severely depressed and listless. |