This blog post is in relation to a comment placed on one of our previous blog-posts.
"There must be a way to make sure that no job becomes one of paid idleness. Every job has to consist of activity or at least presence like working at reception desk which might be necessary even if there isn't much people coming and going at times, and this needs constant re-evaluation so that certain jobs don't become paid idleness because of variations like daily customer amount variation or something else.
Even if a company makes a lot of profit and there are partly or totally useless people employed at any given time, they must not be paid then."
How we deal with unemployment at the moment, is indeed to create unnecessary jobs. Here in South Africa, you'll find, for instance, that there are people in a shop who will place your groceries in bags and tie the bags for you - and that is their job. Or, in a gas station, you can just stay sitting in your car and the personnel of the gas station will do everything for you. In countries in Europe, such jobs do not exist. Each one bags their own groceries and fills up their own car at a gas station. It's often even uncomfortable for Europeans to have someone pack their groceries for them, because it really feels like you are treating this person as a slave - because you're very aware of how you can just do this simple task yourself.What is not considered is that there are many important jobs to be done, which aren't being done at the moment. We can herein simply look at the environment and how little we actually interact with nature to identify where it requires support and to intervene where required. Environmental problems have escalated as companies have not taken responsibility for their polluting activities. Within EMC, each company will have an Environmental Department that ensures that what is taken from the Earth, either in the use of resources, or in terms of pollution, is given back or rectified as much as possible. These departments will create a large amount of meaningful jobs.
So - when we speak of Full Employment in EMC it is not to simply give a person a meaningless task or a job that barely requires any actual contribution, where the person is mostly spinning their thumbs - but to take on meaningful tasks, which the profit motive has not encouraged firms and individuals to address. The principles and regulations that will outline a company's responsibility within providing meaningful jobs will be aligned to the Equality Constitution where a company must perform these tasks within the consideration of what is best for all. Therefore, to create meaningless job and pay a person for not really contributing in any significant way, when there are meaningful jobs to be done - would be in conflict with the company's own principles and regulations as well as in conflict with the Constitution in general.
A company will thus be responsible to, indeed, regularly evaluate that all jobs are still meaningful and to restructure tasks where seen necessary. For instance, if two people in a firm doing two different tasks, no longer have much work to do and half the time sit around doing nothing, then one of the two can take on both tasks and the other can be given an entirely new job or can be assigned to a department that requires more assistance.
Herein - understand, that it will not be an option to simply no longer pay one's employees. A person's income is a person's lifeline and to simply take away a person's income is not acceptable, as it means to take away their access to everything they require to live a dignified life. So, where cases of 'paid idleness' are identified, it is the company's responsibility to employ labor in a meaningful way and to re-assign individuals where necessary. It is not the employees' 'fault' for which they now have to bear the consequences of not being paid.
"A company may not have the isolated right to decide whether a person is active and productive enough - there must be global standards on defining a sufficient amount of activity per day or hour, and those change with the times (because of technology etc.) and with the types of jobs. For Equality."
Possibly, we'll have guidelines in terms of how long a person should preferably work. However, we cannot set these things in stone. The reason is that every person is different. Every person has different abilities and capabilities. Where possible, assistance will be given to enhance a person's skills, abilities and capabilities, however, certain points are genetically defined or are the result of behavioral or physical patterns that are not easy to break through. Consideration and understanding is required therefore, for each one's individual strengths and weaknesses. Every person's contribution will stand in relation to that persons' capabilities. Therefore, fairness doesn't stand in relation to everyone doing the same or doing the same amount of work - it stands in relation to everyone equally contributing what they can contribute.
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