Come on...
This isn't as straightforward as you are painting it.
It never has been.
There are good employers and bad enmployers. The bad ones will hold a gun to your head. They'll give you pay cut after pay cut after pay cut, fail to provide safety equipment, you name it, they'll try it.
Government are better than most, but even they will try it on.
At what point do you say, enough is enough? When you can't pay the mortgage? When your holiday entitlement is whithered so far down that you're even working on the weekends?
Throughout the ages, many of the rights and abilities we take for granted today, have been fought for by Unions. Things that we would think of as basic dignities in the work place. The employers have said time after time after time ... throughout history ... that the extra burdens would drive them out of business .. well, guess what ... they haven't.
In the real world, a member of staff needs to look after themselves physically. Take a break from their work; have a decent holiday to wind down; or else they'll suffer stress, take time off and things will get worse.
Well, guess what .. a bad employer will think nothing of firing your stressed out backside and hiring another piece of fresh meat.
A good employer will recognise an employee as an asset that needs to be taken care of in order to deliver the best performance. It does actually pay them in the long run as the build up of skills and knowledge pays its way in smoother operation and less mistakes.
I actually DARE you to watch all these.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=184NTV2CE_c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLGoKqPAhSk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4PcQfz0MfU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdJg-Qc0xbQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMNVIQqatyU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ3ibE6LtEE
Good business is where employers and employees work together. Where employees really are driven to do their best and deliver; good business breeds happy customers who come back for more. (well, not in every industry, but you get my meaning.)
Bad business is where companies use patents to drive each other out of business and where employees are cowering in the corner, scared for their own jobs, or affraid to ask for that piece of safety equipment that would possibly safeguard their lives.