Obamacare call centre staff allowed six minutes in bathroom, now striking over steep healthcare costs
Staff at US federal contractor Maximus claim they only get six minutes a day to use the bathroom, are monitored by an AI system that reports them for going off script, and can’t afford health care. Katherine Charles’ work days are relentless. She’s one of thousands of call centre workers...
Obamacare call centre staff allowed only six minutes in cloakroom strike over steep healthcare costs
Last month, Senator Bernie Sanders sent a letter to Maximus CEO Bruce Caswell criticising the company for the allegations of union busting and for paying a median salary of $39,000 despite making $311 million in profits and spending $96 million in stock buybacks and $6.3 million in CEO compensation in 2022. He called on the company to improve its wages and working conditions.
Environmentalists strike historical agreet to compensate ecological loss and damage
Developed countries had long pushed back against financing to help countries recover from the destructive impacts of climate change, and the setting up of a loss and damage fund was only agreed upon in principle at last year’s COP27. Negotiators have been wrangling since then to shape that agreement into the basis of a working fund.
Judge to rapper: Haiti police have no informers and citizens prefer to collaborate with gangs for economic benefits
Today, the police have no informers. Due to poverty, many people prefer to collaborate with gangs to gain economic benefits… Sometimes, gang leaders distribute a few bags of stolen rice or money in the neighbourhoods. These people inform them of any police action.
Haiti imbroglio: Today, we’ve a country that doesn’t exist, living in Port-au-Prince is like living in prison
More than 200,000 people have been displaced by recent violence, 44 per cent of the population faces acute food insecurity, more than 2,400 people were killed by gang violence between January and mid-August alone, while countless women have been raped amid the growing impunity.
US forces under fire in Middle East as fear rises Islamic militants are provoking America to respond
It’s unclear how President Joe Biden would respond to a major attack that kills a large number of Americans. Struggling in opinion polls ahead of next year’s presidential election, Biden has so far sought to limit the US role in the conflict mostly to ensuring military aid to Israel.
Zimbabwe syndrome: How Africa’s centres of learning became knowledge pockets that churn out hopeless academics
Unfortunately, in Africa in general and Uganda in particular, overpoliticisation of education and society in the 21st century is the rule rather than the exception. This is combining with the academic interests of control and influence of the slow professors in our greatly disciplined universities to resist the new and different knowledge production cultures/systems of interdisciplinary science, crossdisciplinary science, transdisciplinary science and extradisciplinary science, which are internet age loving.
Domestic terrorism suspected as election offices in US are sent envelopes stuffed with lethal drugs
Fentanyl, an opioid that can be 50 times as powerful as the same amount of heroin, is driving an overdose crisis deadlier than any the US has ever seen as it is pressed into pills or mixed into other drugs. Researchers have found that the risk of fatal overdose from accidently briefly touching or inhaling the drug is low, however.
As ATMIS exits Somalia, UN Mine Action Service is training police improvised explosive devices
With withdrawal work well underway in Somalia, other work continues to ensure that civilian safety and security is maintained. This saw an intensive, five-day training course on improvised explosive devices (IEDs) facilitated by the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) for 13 ATMIS (African Union Transition Mission in Somalia) police...
Kenya to pay back $300 million of $2 billion bond in December, says President Ruto
Kenya will in December pay back $300 million of a $2 billion Eurobond that falls due next June, President William Ruto said on Thursday. The East African nation is being watched closely to see how it handles the bond due to its growing debt repayments, weakening currency and a surge...
