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Every week in life I will be approached by a friend ( or friends ) requesting help on various matters. Due to my long business career and contacts I'm known as being someone who can cut through he BS and sort problems out. It's my pleasure to help, and I also find it interesting. So far so normal I would say.
I live in an area called Bridgeton in Glasgow, Scots know it is a renowned rough and violent area. By definition in my daily life I mix with some seriously dangerous people, and I mix with salt of the earth types. People just getting on with their lives, and trying their best. I love living here as there is a real sense of community still here. So far maybe still so normal??
In this area there are plenty of vulnerable people, some self inflicted, some born that way, some ground down by the vagaries of life, once again so far so normal. What's my point??
UK Employment Law is not in place to protect those of us that can stand up for ourselves, it's in place to protect those that cannot. There are millions of people out there that lack confidence, education, and lets be brutally honest about it, the IQ, to work there way through life and the system without help.
We in the UK decided years ago that these people would get assistance, and I totally agree with that. I have family members who are at the lower end of the socio-economic ( and truth be told IQ ) scale. However they worked away all their lives and paid their tax and national insurance just like the rest of us. These people are the salt of the earth types, they would give you their last penny, their last crust, if you were in need. They don't need charity, they don't need pity, but they do need protection from bullying manipulating employers.
I've seen it happen, I saw my young cousin work for a whole week and go unpaid as the so called employer took the hump with his immediate boss. I had to go down and slap the head off the employer and take the wages off him. I had to do it because his Dad couldn't, he was a hard working man, a real grafter, but timid. That man was one of the greatest men I ever met in my life, and I'm not exaggerating. His greatness came from the fact that he would work every hour that God sent, in deplorable conditions, for the benefit of his family. He retired from a life of manual hard graft at the age of 63, and died 3 weeks later. Sometimes God can be cruel.
So please resist the temptation to use phrases like " man up ", don't attempt to impose your psychology on others, and understand that it takes all sorts to make a world. Some people do not have the confidence, the knowledge, the ability to go into confrontation of any sort. Some people would rather suffer abuse than speak up for themselves.
This is why we created Employment Law, so that families that don't have relatives like theblether can get help. I think it is one of the greatest achievements of my society, and it makes me proud to be a citizen of the UK.
The OP's wife is now a legally landed member of my society, she is entitled to the same consideration and respect as any other spouse, or for that matter any other member of my society. This situation that she finds herself her should not be tolerated, and the OP must take charge of the situation.
It is up to the OP whether he wants to go through legal recourse, or just remove his wife from that job. He will make the decision that is best for his family, he came here looking for advice and possibly support and now he has it. TV at it's best.
