Yeah it’s miserable in work at the moment, but hey, it will get better I hope.

I have put in a claim against my company for when I fell over and broke my hand. I am hoping that having a solicitor on their case will make them do the health and safety jobs I have asked them to… Yeah right, and I am dreaming…

Anyways, had a bit of a crap day, never ate much and when I got home felt awful, am going camping in a few weeks, and the need to look my best is doing my head in, I am only camping for goodness sake but my ed is telling me I cant eat until after the holiday.

Last week it was because Paul was going away and then was away, will it ever end…

I have tried to eat a little tonight, and have done some exercise, but not too much, I only do toning excersises now, as anything else I get obsessed with.

I love swimming, but can’t do it unless I go seven days a week for an hour or more, and it really wasn’t doing me any good.

I also have some other news, after writing to our local paper about the polish workers in our area I have had a response, maybe they will do a story for me, I hope so. As the girls I work with are amazing and the woman they work for is a bitch.

I will post it up after this what I wrote, please read as it’s not nice what they have to put up with.

Dawn xx

8^th May

I am writing to you regarding abuse of Polish workers in our local area, by a company called.
I do not know all of the law regarding workers in our country but I know when people are being taken advantage of.

I have a friend who was working for this company, (now she is just working with me not for them ) She broke her leg in 10th November 2006 and the agency she was working for paid her sick pay, but then still had to pay for her accommodation and travel to work £42.50 when she wasn’t even going to work.
Some of her friends who were working over Christmas were forced to work 100 hours plus in one week, one guy 110 hours, in one week, when he said ‘no he was tired’ she said ‘no you must or you will go back to Poland’ This man and my friend were forced to work in terrible conditions. My friend’s leg was only just out of cast and she was forced to work in one day 16hours, when she asked could she go home, she told ‘No’ that week she worked nearly 70 hours.
They are only paid minimum wage at £5.05 (not sure of last year) and this is for the full 70 hours, they do not get time and a half, and sometimes if they don’t understand about their clocking on card they don’t get paid at all.

Also if you don’t do what is asked and you do go home, via any means you can, you are left the following week without enough work for you to even pay for your accommodation.

And sometimes they really don’t get paid, at least until the following week. A young mother last year wanted to go home to visit her young children and because she didn’t get her wages couldn’t go, and continued to work until she was paid, only because she wanted to keep her job open, and not cause any problems.

The accommodation they live in is awful, they live in caravans at the back of this large farm, the caravans most of them have 2 bedrooms, but actually sleep 6-10 people. These people who are strangers, start work each at different times come home at different times. The caravans have holes in them, and are rotting and they aren’t provided with anything in them, they visit our local car boot sales to try and get by.
When they make friends in the places they work, they aren’t allowed visitors, and boyfriends are a definite no.

They do have houses in which some of them can live. I haven’t been in any of the houses, but I do know, a young girl who worked with us last year, was told the house she was in wasn’t a public house, after her boy friend came to visit, so she moved out.
I would like this investigated because these people should not be allowed to take other peoples lives and force them into working when they really can’t, i.e.: too tired, what if something happened to them in work near a machine…. It really isn’t fair.
These people have families in Poland and in England with them, and they are being treated like slaves, I thought England was beyond things like this.

Anybody any ideas,