“I Fought the Law” is a much-covered song reflecting the angst – and futility – of fighting authority.
Through the years, the song – and its lyrics – have taken on different meanings, and have been applied to different political and social contexts.
When the Dead Kennedys covered the piece in the late 1970s it was intended as a comment on Dan White’s murder of George Moscone and Harvey Milk (an event which was recently documented in the Oscar-nominated film “Milk”).
In 1989 the US Army played the Clash’s version of the song when attempting to flush out the Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
The song might also provide an appropriate soundtrack in a workplace setting – where an employee is charged by the Police with an act of criminal wrongdoing.
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It is, of course, relatively commonplace to have an employment agreement which allows an employer to suspend an employee on full pay while an investigation into an allegation of serious misconduct is proceeding.
And, equally, we have all heard horror stories of investigations which spin out of control, taking many months more than anticipated – meaning that an employee is away from the workplace on full pay while being investigated for some form of inappropriate conduct.
But a recent article about the public school system in New York on the HRCapitalist takes things to an entirely new level.
Teachers who are accused of misconduct in New York are required to leave their workplace and report instead to a “temporary reassignment centre” – affectionately known as the “rubber room”. Here they can wait for months, passing the time playing scrabble, surfing the internet or doing almost anything else – while they wait for their investigation to be concluded.
The practice is estimated to cost tax payers $65 million a year – and the employer (perhaps predictably) blames union rules for the predicament.
Surely this is beyond even the worst case scenario that we might contemplate in New Zealand. Surely?
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