THERE is a multi-million pound industry in Scotland containing some working practices which even Mike Ashley would regard a tad Dickensian and then, of course, after a moment's consideration he would copy them.
Just listen to this cruelty. No proper annual leave, rotas ripped up without even an email sent out to employers, a lack of proper medical insurance for many and those poor workers given an afternoon off are not even allowed to go to the pub.
It makes a night shift in Sports Direct feel like an 18-30 holiday on the back of a good week at the bingo.
This isn’t a factory owned by the North Koreans or some soulless call centre in the back of beyond. It’s Scottish professional football in 2016. It’s not good enough and things have to change.
Of course, we are not talking about those who live in gated communities, with their designer wives, big cars and absolutely no idea what the phrase ‘insufficient funds’ means. That is about 15 per cent at most. It’s the rest, the part-timers, the guys just one leg break away from struggling to pay the bills, those players who don’t even have a club through no real fault of their own, who are getting a raw deal.
A visit to the PFA Scotland offices this week for a chat with chief executive Fraser Wishart threw up a surprising revelation. As we were talking about something entirely different, Wishart, a fine defender in his day and a top notch union leader now, admitted that his organisation, which nine out of ten pros in the country belong to, has little to no relationships with either the SFA or SPFL,
“Whit?” Was the pithy retort for my good self. And, indeed, that is whit the situation is.
“We are almost exclusively on the outside when things are decided,” said Wishart. “It’s particularly with the clubs, the SPFL. With the SFA we are involved in a few working groups and a few bits and piece but on a whole players are not asked whether it’s about league reconstruction or the changes made to the League Cup.
“That meant the players started back training, and it’s part-time players, in the early part of June. Nobody was asked whether it affected them or their jobs when they are training three times a week for 52 weeks a year - for £50. Players do like to be asked.
“Whenever we carry out a survey, such as on artificial turf which most players don’t want to play on, it’s largely ignored.
“It is bonkers to me. It really is. For example, holiday pay came up. The figure is 36 per cent get less than ten days annual leave. Now that’s illegal for a start.
"There is also stuff do with medical cover in that 20 per cent don’t believe they have proper medical cover. What that means is clubs are selective about who gets the treatment, who they pay for and who they don’t. That’s wrong.”
What was that about holidays? Let’s be honest, it is why people become footballers, teachers and the leader of the Scottish UKIP. You get loads of time off to do what you want. Plus these people are athletes and therefore need their rest.
“We take tribunal cases and we either win them or they settle,” revealed Wishart. “It’s a cost to the club because lawyers get involved and they have to pay our legal fees as well. I don’t get why they don’t just come to us and say ‘let’s do a deal, let’s come to an agreement’.
“This was once put to me; if they train on Friday morning and get the afternoon off, is that half a day’s annual leave? Seriously, that is what they’re looking at.
“So we have to say that if it’s annual leave then they can go out for a pint and out at night. The club comes back to say they can’t because they have a game on Saturday. Yeah, it’s not annual leave then. This is what it’s become.”
As Wishart said himself “it’s still that old fashioned trade union versus employed relationship” and, quite frankly, it is miles from being good enough.
Although given who everything (doesn’t) work over at Hampden should be in the least bit surprised.
Why the SFA and SPFL, and by extension the clubs, do not feel the need to engage with the body which represents their prices assets is an a question that needs to be answers, but probably not asked because the response won’t tell us anything and nothing is going to change.
The recently departed Fidel Castro may not have been much of a fan of trade unions; however, football, ironically one of the most capitalist environments around has a 90 per cent of its members signed up, people who want and deserve to be heard.
Or at least to be asked their opinion about, you know, football. Just once would be a step forward.
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