open letter to the BBC

Dear BBC,

Having manfully braved the snow this morning and made it to work at least 25 minutes later than usual I've spent most of the day listening to the radio as there wasn't a great deal of work to do. All afternoon you have been broadcasting interviews about the subject 'being paid for not working'. Radio 2 and Radio 5 both carried similar pieces.

The presenters have been trying really hard to push the message that trying to get to work is the same as actually getting to work and that employers should just pay their staff who've "tried really hard to get there." Lawyers who have been interviewed have defended the employers' position by referring the presenter to the law which does not state anywhere that a company has to pay an employee for not turning up, unless they are sick in which case SSP might be payable.

Not happy with that answer the presenters have then tried a convoluted "what if they try to get to work but are hurt on the way" scenario to which the lawyers have, once again, reeled out the same reference to employment law. Still not content I heard one presenter go for a "tried to get to work and hurt themselves really near to work, does that make the employer liable?" question.

Jesus fucking christ this is utterly cunting insane. Why are you trying to promote the idea that employees should get paid for not actually turning up for work? Why are you trying to seed the idea that an employee can sue their employer for something that happened during their journey to work, not even on the work premises? Companies pay employees for the work that they do not the work they might have done if they had turned up. If an employee cannot get to work then they either lose money or find a job that they can get to. The presenter who espoused the idea on Radio 2 some time between 5 and 6 today that the law needs changing to allow employees to be paid for not working needs a large reality check.



Yours in utter bewilderment


manwiddicombe