Home |
Identity |
Occupation |
Occupation [ Back to Altered Lifescapes ]There are many references in the diaries and interviews to disruption of work patterns, including money, time, colleagues and relationships. For vets, changes continued as they caught up with routine testing visits which could not take place in 2001.
(Health and veterinary, diary, 2002) They also report addressing new and increased animal health problems consequent to re-stocking. TB testing and re-testing with its associated anxieties was continuing as diary writing closed in May/June 2003. Field officers and other front-line workers from within DEFRA and seconded from other agencies (e.g. Environment Agency) speak both of very long hours and arduous conditions in 2001, but then experienced difficulties of settling back into routine work after the fevered pace of the epidemic. Levels of wages paid during FMD led to market distortions which created resentments. A slaughterman says of a former fellow worker:
(Frontline worker, diary, 2002)
(Health and veterinary, diary, 2002) Yet some vets, like this one, were seconded from their practices on their normal salary, the balance of the funds going to sustain the practice as a whole. There was also a re-distribution of work: here a slaughterman made redundant from the abattoir due to FMD, joins an FMD slaughter team:
(Frontline worker, interview, 2002) An agricultural supply business tried to keep its staff on:
(Agricultural related, interview, 2002) They lost over 300 clients through confirmed infection (one third of Cumbrian cases.) His role as agricultural supplier changes to one of confidante:
(Agricultural related, interview, 2002) Income from tourism in the marginal areas was severely reduced and remained so throughout the whole of 2001. Small businesses report taking out bank loans to keep afloat during months of uncertainty.
(Small business, diary, 2003) However businesses in towns and villages in the central areas of Cumbria fared better. While hospitality providers on the fringes and in farm settings lost almost all their business, the hotels and guesthouses in towns in the worst hit areas gained business from incoming vets, field officers and slaughter teams. DEFRA alone spent over £4m on staff accommodation. Some rural businesses in marginal locations suffered severe isolation and hardship:
(Small business, interview, 2002) Conditions of work changed. Those on the ‘front-line’ speak of long hours, sporadic meal breaks, keeping going on adrenalin, exhaustion. Wagon drivers faced new imperatives when collecting milk or delivering feed and were under constant scrutiny as to bio-security.[ Back to Altered Lifescapes ]
|
|||
| |||
Site Design by with the generous support of
|