Letters - 13 February 2015
From zero-hours contracts to Holocaust Memorial Day
Zero-hours contracts
I was pleased to read the two articles which relate to recent events at Friends House and to the work of the hospitality company (30 January), and the statement on new working contracts by Paul Parker on quaker.org.uk.
It is difficult to comment further without detailed specific information – which it would clearly not be proper to disclose – but the question ‘to what degree is there a clash of “two cultures” operating in Friends House – the culture of the outside world and that of the “Quaker way”’? prompts further reflection.
If we/the hospitality company have to deal with both the Quaker world and the non-Quaker world in language which each will understand, there is perhaps bound to be some ‘clash’, but when I read in ‘Taking stock’ on the work of the hospitality company that confidence arises because ‘bookings for The Light in 2015 have already surpassed our targets’ and then, a few lines later, a reference to individuals and groups ‘who feel themselves part of the Swarthmoor Hall heritage’ it seems to me that the ‘culture of the outside world’ has permeated Quakerism more than we realise.
Is the promotional branding of the Large Meeting House as The Light finally justified because it is has proved profitable? And ‘heritage’? As a member of both English Heritage and the National Trust, and a frequent visitor to the vintage trams at Blackpool and elsewhere, I thoroughly and unashamedly enjoy ‘heritage’, but I’d like to think that my Quakerism can be seen as a bit more than another heritage experience.
John Cockcroft
What a shock to read that Friends House had used zero-hours contracts for some of its lowest paid employees! In ‘The letter and the Spirit’ (30 January) it is asked why such contracts were introduced in the first place, and whether this story prompts ‘other questions concerning the treatment of employees at Friends House?’
In the article ‘Taking stock’ by Jennifer Barraclough and Peter Coltman (30 January), I read assurances that our Quaker hospitality company ‘demonstrates Quaker outreach and Quaker principles… which shows our testimonies in action’. We are told that zero-hours contracts are routinely used in the hospitality industry, that ‘extreme versions’ were not used by Friends House and, somewhat bafflingly, that the Friends House company that introduced them in the first place supported Friends who wanted to see this type of employment abolished. But there were no answers on how such contracts were introduced in the first place in the headquarters of British Quakerism, and only abolished when the practice was protested.
In ‘The letter and the Spirit’ it also asked: ‘Did no one discern that [zero-hour contracts] might be in conflict with the Quaker way?’ I hope this and the other questions in the article will not be treated as merely rhetorical. We need straight answers if Friends are to be reassured that the Quaker way is ‘at the heart of everything done at Friends House’.
David Boulton
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