来源：《卫报》
刊登日期：2021年3月22日
The erosion of job security and the prospects of millions of UK workers due to casualisation and outsourcing is widely recognised to have transformed the experience of work. Between 2000 and 2016, the number of zero-hours contracts increased fourfold. Such trends are meeting with increased resistance. Last week, Uber drivers won the right to a minimum hourly wage and holiday pay.
人们普遍认为，散工和外包对就业保障和数百万英国工人前景的侵蚀，改变了工作体验。从2000年到2016年，零时工合同的数量增加了四倍。这种趋势正遇到越来越多的阻力。上周，优步司机赢得了最低时薪和假日工资的权利。
Through the replacement of permanent staff with service contracts, public sector employers such as the NHS have been part of the shift towards more unstable employment. The exposure of a company that was paying Sri Lankan teenagers £1.57 an hour to tutor primary school pupils shows that schools in England are now being pushed down a similar path. Parents and teachers want to make the most of the £1.7bn catch-up fund provided by the government. But as difficulties with the scheme emerge, it seems far from clear that it will boost schools and teachers. On the contrary, the use of public funds to build a system that supplements lessons by qualified teachers with far cheaper ones delivered via the internet, by unqualified people thousands of miles away, could undermine them.
通过用服务合同取代长期雇员，NHS等公共部门雇主已经成为向更不稳定就业转变的一部分。一家以每小时1.57英镑的价格，雇用斯里兰卡青少年辅导小学生的公司被曝光，显示英国的学校现在正被推上类似的道路。家长和老师希望充分利用政府提供的17亿英镑补习基金。但随着这项计划的困难出现，它是否能促进学校和教师的发展似乎还很不明朗。相反，利用公共资金建立一个系统，用几千英里外的不合格人员通过互联网提供的廉价课程，来补充合格教师的课程，可能会损害学校和老师。
The company found to have been using 17-year-olds, Third Space Learning, has now introduced a minimum age of 18. The Department for Education has said it will conduct a review. But the decision to spend public money on tutors in Sri Lanka and India raises important questions about technology, education and the broad social and economic consequences of the pandemic.
第三空间学习公司一直在使用17岁的学生，现在引入了18岁的最低年龄限制。教育部已表示将进行审查。但是，用公共资金雇用斯里兰卡和印度辅导教师的决定带来了关于技术、教育以及疫情导致的广泛社会和经济后果的重要问题。
Unquestionably, in countries where large numbers of people have digital access, Covid-19 has changed the way we work and learn. Online meetings, conferences and lectures have become mainstream; being in the same place as colleagues or classmates is no longer a prerequisite. But while many people, not least the tech industries’ cheerleaders, have been quick to point out the opportunities that this opens up, there has yet to be a reckoning with the threats. Outsourcing manufacturing or back-office functions to countries with cheaper labour is nothing new. The question now arises: why employ tutors, teachers, or anyone who does anything that can be done remotely, in countries where wages and living costs are high?
毫无疑问，在拥有大量互联网用户的国家，新冠疫情改变了我们的工作和学习方式。在线会议和讲座已经成为主流；与同事或同学呆在同一个地方不再是先决条件。不过，尽管很多人(尤其是科技行业的支持者)很快指出了这带来的机遇，但还没有对威胁做出评估。将制造业或后台部门外包给劳动力更便宜的国家并不是什么新鲜事。现在的问题是：为什么要在工资和生活成本都很高的国家雇佣家教、教师等人？他们做的事情通过网络就能搞定。
The answer is obvious, for anyone who recognises that such activities and institutions are not reducible to a simple exchange. In any community or society, people do things together. Education and work are not economic abstractions, but part of life. However, a fork in the road lies ahead: workforce issues are already widely recognised to be the single biggest challenge facing the health and care system. In education, too, the high dropout rate of teachers is a cause for concern.
对于任何认识到教学活动和学校这类机构不能简化为交易的人来说，答案是显而易见的。在任何社区或社会中，人们都是一起做事的。教育和工作不是经济学的抽象概念，而是生活的一部分。然而，前方有一个岔路口：劳动力问题已经被广泛认为是医疗保健系统面临的最大挑战。在教育领域，教师的高离职率也是一个令人担忧的问题。
The social care and early years workforce is seriously undervalued and underpaid. Either the government makes a decision to invest in the people who deliver these services, on behalf of a public that values skilled jobs, or public sector work is likely to become more unstable. As decisions regarding the catch-up fund make clear, champions of the public sphere as a space exempt from the rush for profit have their work cut out.
社会保健和早期教育工作者的价值被严重低估，报酬也很低。政府应该代表重视技术工作的公众决定投资于提供这些服务的人，否则，公共部门的工作可能会变得更加不稳定。正如有关补习基金的决定所表明的那样，公共领域作为一个免于追逐利润的地方，其拥护者的工作被取代了。