In this difficult times where the poor are in sufferance from the low wages and the escalating prices of fuel, basic goods and services, the pressing need to settle dues of various bills is true cause for mental anguish. The anxiety of failing to settle obligations as they fall mayhap lead to depression for the weak and troubled mind.
Amid the troubles caused by pennilessness, the poor continue to find ways and means to earn just to live decently and hopefully reduce pending if not increasing obligations. The pain of paying the cost of money, at times at usurious rates that the poor are forced to accept for lack of available options during the time of great and urgent need, is simply tormenting.
The injustice that the poor bears is aggravated when he had worked with his sweat and blood and his earnings are not commensurate and worse, is kept by the employer without just cause. The bitter pill to swallow is when the employer resort to lending money at usurious interest purportedly to help the penniless workers. The worker is placed with no option but to bite the proverbial bullet for survival sake.
The employee is at the mercy of the employer who has full control of the situation as to when to pay the wages of the indebted employee. When the wages are eventually paid, the interest of the debt had grown too large that the receivable of the poor employee had been reduced with the huge interest.
There are situations like health needs where the worker is required to settle hospital bills and buy medicines for a sick family member. The same is true when the family has to produce money to pay for the educational needs of children.
Another pressing need is to prevent disconnection of electricity, water services and internet which is a necessity in these times of online classes, work and commercial transactions. These are ordinary obligations that push the poor into panic at the sight of disconnection teams. The burden of additional charges for reconnection and surcharges for late payment is too much for the poor to bear.
Even in instances that the employer does not impose usurious interest on the amount borrowed by the employee, the delayed payment of wages still causes undue suffering as the employee is forced to borrow elsewhere no matter the huge interest that the lender would impose. The urgency of the need is too much that the employee would agree even to the unjust conditions just to be able to produce the needed amount.
comments to alellema@yahoo.com
