My Lord! Those Peasants Are Doing 'Spanish Practices!'

javi2541997

This is hilarious; outstanding; comical and funny. :smirk:

The charter on my desk says—I read it as it is written, my Lord, I promise—that the peasants are doing irregular practices to reduce their working hours. They say they can't work twelve consecutive hours. Children are ill; women are sick; old people are injured; men are suffering from scurvy. They say if there is no deal, they will not harvest the intended amount of barley.

This is outrageous; exorbitant; immoderate; offensive. :rage:

My Lord replied, Thus I hereby confirm that is what My Lord exactly expressed: The inherited jobs by the peasants' families are acknowledged in the Chamber. But I sorrowfully say that your Spanish practices are absurd. How dare your honourable union to request working the hours they were paid and better labour conditions? As one knows, peasants are very hard-working, upright people. But your attitude reminds me of deceitful, perfidious, treacherous, sneaky, and two-faced intentions. From November to February, these Spanish practices will be increasingly removed from the workstead.

Adios to these lingering Spanish practices!

***

What is the meaning of Spanish practices?

Jim Thornton in a 2006 debate in the House of commons said: The term "Spanish practices" is a well-established phrase meaning "long-standing but unauthorised working methods." https://web.archive.org/web/20071013022333/http://www.igreens.org.uk/spanish_practices.htm

Victoria S Dennis also points out: I certainly remember as a child my father explaining ructions between the British newspaper owners and their employees and describing to me the "old Spanish customs" that the print workers were attempting to defend, such as filling in work sheets in the name "M. Mouse" or "D. Duck". :lol:

Did you ever experience these practices? Were you the ringleader of these?

How would you define a 'Spanish practice?'

T Clark

This is hilarious; outstanding; comical and funny. — javi2541997

Where is this from? I have never heard the phrase "Spanish practices" before.

javi2541997

↪T Clark

It is a British expression that originated in the Elizabethan era. I never knew of this slang until today too. It randomly popped up in my news of BBC and Daily Mail. The rest of the text is written by me. I mean, the exchange between the Lord and the peasants. I considered it funny, and my imagination started to flow.

For further clarification, I cited two persons using 'Spanish practices' expression in context.

T Clark

The rest of the text is written by me. — javi2541997

I've said this before - I'm glad you are posting more of your own writings here.

javi2541997

I've said this before - I'm glad you are posting more of your own writings here. — T Clark

I am glad to share my creativity here, and I am pleased that you read what I usually post. :smile:

Nils Loc

There is no doubt that a lot of time spent waffling at the TPF is just another example of these "Spanish practices".

Until the boss is allowed corporate-level productivity monitoring, we will all keep getting away with acting like Spaniards, drinking wine at all hours, taking naps on the company's time, and mistaking giants for windmills.

javi2541997

↪Nils Loc

It is interesting that you interpret the slang 'Spanish Practices' as when we point out lazy people or laid-back culture. This is what I expected when I read the headline.
But, surprisingly, there is another interpretation around on behalf of trade unions or workers. Doing unauthorised working methods with the aim of being listened by the bosses and changing the labour conditions. Hence the example of Royal Mail workers.

We don't take naps on the company's time! That's why the shops are closed from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m.

Nils Loc

But, surprisingly, there is another interpretation around on behalf of trade unions or workers. Doing unauthorised working methods with the aim of being listened by the bosses and changing the labour conditions. — javi2541997

If only labor collaboration could be so unified in good faith and by fellowship. These practices are like the softest/benign version of a strike, which I'm sure happens now and again in various forms where it is tolerated.

Am sure there are very interesting examples of it written down somewhere.

javi2541997

Am sure there are very interesting examples of it written down somewhere. — Nils Loc

Sí. :smile:

In the Royal Mail’s case, there are apparently 92 ‘Spanish practices’, which are said to include workers claiming overtime if mail volumes reach a certain level, or clocking in and out at the same time so no-one knows what actual hours are worked,—this is indeed my favourite :lol:—and additional payments being claimed for Easter and Christmas, even if no overtime is actually worked.

https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/have-a-rant-spanish-practices-is-an-outdate-phrase/

The term became infamous in the 1980s as a result of battles between the print unions and management in the newspaper industry in Fleet Street. The Spanish practices included deliberate overmanning; union control over who was hired; demands for cash payments to remake a page as deadlines approached; machine-room employees who claimed wages for workers who didn’t exist; and men who might be absent for whole days while moonlighting at other jobs but who would be covered by unspoken agreements not to notice.

https://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-spa2.htm

All of that only happened in the UK. It seems to be a British thing, but with quixotic and Spanish tones.

Nils Loc

92 ‘Spanish practices’

Wonder if Amazon (corporation) workers in anywhere in the world could get away with this, or is the labor monitoring so fine-tuned that it makes the potential for 'Spanish practices' pretty much impossible. Amazon seems to benefit greatly from the prospect of infinite worker turn-over but I'm not so sure its sustainable.

If we are on the side of exploited and under paid labor, it's not so much a pejorative term. There is always a limit beyond which exploited labor becomes exploitative labor though. When the entire workforce has a stake in ownership and gains from productivity, co-workers might share in the bosses' concerns.

Have heard of the mythical Mondrogon corporation. Americans would do well to learn about work cooperatives in school if wasn't always considered anti-American socialist propaganda.

javi2541997

Have heard of the mythical Mondrogon corporation. Americans would do well to learn about work cooperatives in school if wasn't always considered anti-American socialist propaganda. — Nils Loc

Ah, you mean the way the Basque work in Arrasate. Yes, it is excellent, actually. There are other parts of Spain where they work similarly. I mean, without the hierarchical pyramid of power and responsibility. The workers are the same grade, and they solve the problems themselves. If I am not mistaken, Galician dockers do the same.

Wonder if Amazon (corporation) workers in anywhere in the world could get away with this, or is the labor monitoring so fine-tuned that it makes the potential for 'Spanish practices' pretty much impossible. — Nils Loc

I would not be 100% sure. Maybe there is a subsidiary in Seville that leaves the cargo stranded, claiming Eastern and Christmas additional payments. Or maybe this happens at Liverpool docks—who can know where the next 'Spanish practices' will be done?

Anyway, don't forget to not clock in and out at the same time so no one knows what actual hours are worked. That's outrageous; perfidious, treacherous, sneaky, and two-faced. :naughty:

My Lord! Those Peasants Are Doing 'Spanish Practices!'

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