Sweatshop-style work on Election Night

As part of the celebration of democracy in the form of an election, I applied to Manchester City Council as a counting assistant. Since the coordinator said the position is full, I was offered a night shift to assist on the postal vote opening session from five in the evening of Thursday 6th May to about 2am the next day. I happily accepted and received a confirmation email on Tuesday 4th May, in which I was told “to report to Committee Room 11 at 5:00 PM on Thursday 6th May 2010, bring your Manchester City Council ID and personnel number... It is likely that the session will run until 2 AM (but be prepared it may be later...)”.

On Wednesday 5th May, I and 22 other City Council employees who applied for this secondment received an email from the coordinator Chris Shepherd (Governance Officer, Governance and Scrutiny Support Team, Manchester City Council) saying, “Please note that there is no time off being given to people working on the postal vote opening session on Thursday evening. If you want to come in later on the Friday morning you will have to take annual leave or flex time if you have any and you must book this in the usual way through your line manager.”

So our options are: either to have only a few hours rest after work consecutively for 15 hours, or being forced to take annual leave.

After consulting with the European Council Directive concerning certain working time (EC Directive 93/104/EC 23 November 1993 Section II Article 3), I questioned this decision. This is what I said in my email to Ms Shepherd, “May I ask what about our 11 hours rest period as stated in EC Directive 1993?”

Article 3 of the Directive says, “Member States shall take the measures necessary to ensure that every worker is entitled to a minimum daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours per 24 hour period.”

An hour later, Ms Shepherd replied saying that “This is voluntary and is paid as overtime. I presume you do not wish to do this now and will take you off my list.” I replied immediately by saying that I have committed myself and that I found it odd as other colleagues from Manchester City Council who are working (seconded) at polling stations and as counting assistants received full day release from work – and not forced to take annual leave.

She did not reply to my email and an hour later I phoned her, only to get a reply that, “I have taken you out of the list as the position is now full. We have enough people.” I challenged her of whether she took me out of the list because I had questioned about EU regulations, and she repeated her one sentence answer, “The position is now full and we have enough people.”

I found this disgustingly undemocratic, and reminded me clearly of the working conditions of labourers in sweatshops in the under-developed world who are not allowed to question their human rights. As a journalist and activist in Indonesia, I have heard many stories about workers who are suddenly sacked after they joined a trade union and asked questions about their rights.

The saddest thing is that this happened just one day before the election, the day we in the democratic world celebrate Democracy by electing the proper leader who is going to represent us in Parliament. Moreover, this happened within the city council that claimed to always respect human’s (worker’s) rights.

I do not understand the excuse of “the position is full” while I already received a confirmation email the day before, instructing me to report to a specific room in the Town Hall where the postal vote opening was going to take place. I also do not understand her email saying that “this is voluntary and is paid as overtime.” However, I am positive in my understanding of the EC Directive 1993 about working hours, that this directive is written regarding overtime.

I am very disappointed, not only because I am suddenly being excluded from taking part of the Celebration of Democracy in the country where the concept of democracy was originated, but more because a "Governance Officer" from "Governance and Scrutiny Support Team" at Manchester City Council can take an action as arbitrary as a dictator in undemocratic countries.

I wish everyone participating in the 2010 Election all the best; and I do hope that the leaders of the great United Kingdom will not let any act of dictatorship and workers exploitations like this take place anymore.