One fairly recent entrant is Serco, a British company with fingers in so many pies that one newspaper called it the company that runs Britain. And now another company with its roots in the security industry is advertising for Welfare to Work Senior Management Team and Supporting Roles. It's G4S which says it "delivers services in over 110 countries" and is "the largest private sector employer in the world" in their advert on the Indus Delta site. Rather worryingly, G4S is citing its work with offenders as the basis of its suitability for the welfare-to-work contracts. "G4S already work with over 100,000 offenders and young people each year - transforming their life chances through care, supervision, training and rehabilitation. We want to take that work further. G4S are investing heavily in creating the very best solutions to support the 5.5 million people of working age who are currently on benefits to move from dependency into self-sufficiency and a decent, lasting job."
It's worrying that any company should see those who are not in work as being in "dependency" and in need of the same sort of treatment as offenders. But that may well chime with the ideologues in the goevernment.
Two words alone should be enough to disqualify Serco: Yarl's Wood.
ReplyDeleteAnd long before Yarls Wood, Group 4, as they were called at the time, kept losing prisoners while transporting them to and from court. The joke was they should let Group 4 start the Grand National race to make sure they all got away!
ReplyDeleteDecent lasting job, they say. How much do G4S security earn, and how many hours a week do they work. Come on G4s, do tell us??