Re:Uber loses court appeal against drivers' rights
by vidarh on Friday November 10, 2017 @08:35AM
(#15669744)
> You don't raise employment standards by making low standards illegal.
Yes, in fact, we do. A whole lot of practices have ended predominantly due to legal changes.
A major historical example from the US being the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire [1] where 146 workers died in part because the owners locked the factory doors to prevent unauthorized breaks.
The outcome was both an increase in unionization and legal changes.
Employment standards are the way they are today not in general because companies have decided to act nice, but because they've been forced, through law and union action, over a very long time, to adhere to minimum levels.
> Low paying jobs work for some people because their circumstances don't give them the opportunity to get anything better.
Allowing these jobs to undercut competitors that pay properly propagates low paid situations where society end up having to subsidize the behavior of the companies in question because they don't pay livable wages. I for one would much rather have a proper welfare system than a system that rewards companies like that.
Yes, in fact, we do. A whole lot of practices have ended predominantly due to legal changes.
A major historical example from the US being the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire [1] where 146 workers died in part because the owners locked the factory doors to prevent unauthorized breaks.
The outcome was both an increase in unionization and legal changes.
Employment standards are the way they are today not in general because companies have decided to act nice, but because they've been forced, through law and union action, over a very long time, to adhere to minimum levels.
> Low paying jobs work for some people because their circumstances don't give them the opportunity to get anything better.
Allowing these jobs to undercut competitors that pay properly propagates low paid situations where society end up having to subsidize the behavior of the companies in question because they don't pay livable wages. I for one would much rather have a proper welfare system than a system that rewards companies like that.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fi...