Precarious Work, Vulnerable Workers and COVID-19

 

Image credit: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk

Precarious Work, Vulnerable Workers and COVID-19


 

Precarious work is a term used to describe certain types of employment, usually, but not always, non-standard or temporary. It is precarious precisely because it is insecure and unprotected, it pays poorly and unreliably, and provides very limited or no social benefits and statutory entitlements.

People who are dependent on precarious work employment for their income find it extremely challenging to support a household and often need to take two or even three such jobs in their efforts to make ends meet. Such people are justifiably termed, "vulnerable workers".

We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish

Image credit: rlcfchurch.org

by Deacon Steve Pitre

“We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish”

As we listen to the apostle’s response to Jesus statement, “…you give them something to eat,” do we hear ourselves saying the same thing from time to time? We may not say it like they did but I know I have said to myself, “I only have so many hours in the day and most of that is spent working, commuting and then with family.”

Resurrection, Not Resuscitation

Following is an extract from a reflection on last Sunday's readings by Stephen Bevans, SVD and
Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD of the Catholic Theological Union. The Gospel was Matthew 14:13-21, the feeding of the multitude.

It is the generous extravagance and abundance of “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” that we need to keep in mind in this trying, difficult, almost unbearable time in our lives. We are in that “deserted place” and it is “already late.” If you are like me, it’s not just the COVID-19 pandemic that is terrifying — and that is terrifying enough. It is the racism and hatred that has revealed itself, the shocking individualism that is prolonging the agony of these months, the painful call (for some of us — liberating for others!) to revise our history and our heroes, the dangerous disregard for science and real wisdom that is harming an entire generation. It is the disregard for human lives, especially Black lives today, that is making us pant with thirst. It is a refusal to see the harm we are causing to our planet, and to future generations of plants and animals and human children, that is making us faint with hunger. We desperately need the love of God in Jesus to feed us with hope, with compassion, with patience, with perseverance.