A teenage waitress has been warned she will be sacked unless she quits smoking.Fair enough. After all, it's for employers to set the terms under which they will employ staff, and if they don't want her to smoke on company premises, then they have the backing of law. After all, businesses lose a lot of time from employee smoking breaks.
But wait:
Bethany South, 16, has been told to give up the habit for good – both during breaks from work and even in her spare time – or risk losing her job.Anything else you'd like to ban in her own time, Mr Prat-Power? No drinking alcohol, unless it's sourced from naturally-grown grapes tended by Provencal peasants and flown to the UK by carrier pigeons? Uneconomic day trips by car to Alton Towers, oooh, no, we can't have that, can we? Would you like to regulate the newspaper she reads too? Pop into her living room and check that she's watching an 'ecologically approved' TV programme, something by David Attenborough?
Her boss Julian Preston-Powers issued the warning after catching her lighting up outside Intenso Espresso Bar in Portland Road, Hove.
He said her smoking went against the policy of the café, which serves healthy, organic food.
I hope she takes him to a tribunal and wins big. In fact, she could:
Mr Preston-Powers, who is franchise director for the coffee shop, said: “I contacted employment lawyers and they told me I wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in front of a tribunal but I feel so strongly about this that I was happy to go ahead with it.".And there you have the green approach to the law in its purest form; I know I'm in the wrong, but I just don't care...
And I'll remember this the next time some authoritarian little creep is promoting his green agenda. Because this is what they are all like, deep down - people who want to bully and control teenage girls, because they can.
I'd chuck a tenner into her legal fund to see this arrogant cock taken to the cleaners.
ReplyDeleteSo would I, Obnoxio.
ReplyDeleteOver the years, I've learned NOT to punch walls, but sometimes it's hard to resist. A bit like smoking, really *lights up a Park Road because he's a cheapskate*.
Jeebus...every day I get more and more relieved that I'll be getting out of this shithole and moving to the US.
OK, so the Deep South is full of fundies. At least you don't get dirty looks for daring to smoke, though. You only get dirty looks if you don't like guns, and I'm all in favour of smoking guns.
TA-DAAAH! What, no-one laughed? Oh, never mind...
Lol!
ReplyDeleteBut joking aside, what kind of teenagers is Nu Labour's education system producing, that she meekly accepts this, because he 'has my best interests at heart'...?!?
ReplyDeletePreston-Powers (is that his real name?) just can't get enough avoidable law grief.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like he's indulging in a bit of thuggish PR here; the kid is willing to be manipulated because she has her photo in the paper. The answer to your question about what kind of teenagers are we producing is a depressing one where anything approximating to fame is regarded as a legitimate career aim in itself - not fame for anything, but just being known.
It looks very much as if he believes permission to do things is for other people, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteI think we have a budding politician in the making! After all, Bethany would probably vote for him...