The UK government has ran the country on the cheap for decades. Failing to legislate for proper wages and conditions, only applying H&S law after being dragged kicking and screaming through the courts. Remember Camerons mantra of "I want more for less".
I know of 60 year old apprentices, 60 years old FFS, not the much maligned YTS scheme of yesteryear, as some people have said on here, YTS was good for them, I am glad for you but I remember it as a cheap way of of exploiting young workers purely to fiddle the unemployment figures, nothing else. I remember my brother working a full week for an extra tenner on top of his dole, and if he didn't work satisfactory his dole was stopped. Today we have zero hours jobs, part time this, temporary that, fixed term contracts, all on **** poor wages, Job insecurity and people unable to plan for the future because there is no future when working these conditions.
In the 90's I attended one of my many job interviews. What do you think the first question was? It was not. "Why do you want this position?" or, "What makes you suitable for this role" , or even " What can you bring to this company?" No, it was none of them. The very first question was, "What is the lowest you will work for?" And that epitomises how our country has been ran since 1979.
Workers have had the Tory foot on their necks since then.
HGV drivers have to p!ss, sh1t, eat and sleep in their cabs, very few toilet facilities, even less chance to have a shower, spoken to like crap, being made to wait to be unloaded/loaded making them late for their next drop/pick up. Being away from home 6 days a week, working against the clock. Being sat down for most of the day with little chance of decent excercise, eating fast food because mealtimes are inadequate. This has an effect on their health making them susceptible to high blood pressure/heart problems. Money is only part of the issue.
Now they are standing up for themselves and I say good look to them