THE experience of Patricia Stanley and her sister (You Say, May 14) will have left every reader feeling ashamed on behalf of Worcester.

I hope some way can be found to make amends and an apology offered to these disgracefully-treated octogenarians.

While it in no way excuses the indifference of the staff at Foregate Street station to the distress of the two ladies, such incidents will occur repeatedly as workers are increasingly marginalised by modern business practices.

De-skilling, outsourcing, privatisation and casualisation have all conspired to reduce the status of workers to casual labour.

With no stake in their jobs and no pride in their work, save for that which personal dignity and self-respect demands with no thanks, they react accordingly.

Success in business is measured by the maximisation of profit and the rapid enrichment of entrepreneurs. Bus companies have created many millionaires from asset stripping, subsidies, low pay, minimum training and lack of investment.

Most train operators act with equal indifference to their workers and the consequent misery to passengers.

Royal Mail has eliminated all status from the job of postman by casualisation. Hospital cleaning and catering firms win their contracts by paying the lowest wages.

This is the modern competitive world we are endlessly told that we have to accept and that anything else is "living in the past".

New Labour wants 50 per cent of all pupils to go on to university. What about the other 50 per cent? Patricia Stanley and her sister were victims of a callous indifference born of greedy, materialistic attitudes created by Margaret Thatcher, and of a few workers who forgot common decency on that day.

PETER NIELSEN, Worcester.