Work experience - a voluntary scheme since last year, when employers decided that it wasn't good for their image if people could be punished for refusing to do it. It's not the same as the Work Programme or Mandatory Work Activity. So that's all right. But now Homebase has been embarrassed by the leak of an internal document which shows the scheme being promoted among Homebase's store managers. A photo of a dozen or so jobseekers at the Haringey branch is captioned: "Would 750 hours with no payroll costs benefit YOUR store?" This was passed to Tom Pride and has now been given wider coverage by the Guardian. The subheading on the document is "How the work experience scheme can benefit your store". Apparently the Haringey Homebase took 25 unpaid jobseekers in February, each working 30 hours a week for up to 8 weeks. The Boycott Workfare group claims to have an anonymous source which says that those taking part were threatened with sanctions if they refused. In one of those tweets which rapidly get deleted, the Finsbury Park jobcentre claimed, 2 days before the Easter holiday, that it had placed 21 people on the scheme in the Haringey store. The union Unite is outraged.
Homebase has said all the right things. People on the scheme are not replacing paid workers, they can leave whenever they want to, etc. And the DWP says that there are safeguards to ensure that people are not being exploited. But the person who drew up the Homebase document clearly saw the scheme as useful free labour.
If this is happening with the supposedly voluntary scheme, what is going on with those programmes which make no pretence to being voluntary? Remember that the government adamantly refuses to disclose which organisations are involved, so we don't know how many other companies are benefitting from "no payroll costs".
Can't tell from the picture, but I thought "work experience" was only available to under 25s? Or have they changed the definition of work experience to allow all ages to take part?
ReplyDeleteI wanted to say my voluntary work was "work experience" ie - gaining practical experience to ensure I had the skills for the job which is a skilled trade and not shelf stacking but was told by my JCP advisor that this wasn't allowed because I'm over 25, so it had to be "voluntary work". She sympathised, but said that was the rule.
And how is this work experience different from doing an unpaid internship, which you are not allowed to do when you're on JSA because it is too many hours?
The Tories appear to want to allow big business access to free labour. But if paid work is replaced by workfare tax receipts will fall, leaving a greater public debt.
ReplyDeleteThe ultimate objective is to replace all paid employees with workfare labour.
DeleteWorkfare workers are not protected by employment law, are unpaid and can be subjected to draconian discipline through the sanctions regime.
This is part of an overall strategy to turn a large percentage of the population into state owned serfs who will be rented out to private companies.
The Tories are setting up a de facto system of apartheid, based on social class rather than race.
I got sent on Work Experience as a Learning Support Asst to pre ESOL groups at a college. I ended up teaching basic literacy as well as English and was the college's interpretor for Spanish speaking students, taking them to JCP and housing interviews and filling in forms. Eight weeks of this and the college offered to pay the cost of my PTLLS course as well as my £38 pw fares to work (across London). This meant I could get a paying classroom job and follow up with CELTA which all the teachers had and, they assured me, there was plenty of work around. The jobcentre immediately forced me to leave for the Work Programme. Maximus dismissed teacher training and decided for me : 'some nice domestic work' several micro jobs (half hour or so) all over the place with pay wiped out by fares. I was willing to do what they wanted but as well as, not instead of my teaching work 3 hours a day. I offered to work night shifts and weekends. This was important because the course was about to start (16 weeks) and I wanted to apply for paid work while at the college. I found a weekend gardening job through a neighbour (paid), thought everything was sorted and told the jobcentre only to be sanctioned. How long? I was told 'you will be informed'. I wasn't. Anyway I lost my flat and was made destitute. This was because I no longer had a sign on day and nobody wanted to discuss it. So Mr Duncan Smith talks about people who are serious about working. Well, I was dead serious and good at my job.
ReplyDeleteThis deserves more publicity. We have a programme that is supposed to assist people back into work but in this case has actually prevented that. What's more it seems to have made someone homeless and destitute.
DeleteYou just couldn't make this stuff up.
Try getting in touch with some journos with this story.
It does deserve publicity. But you know what? Smith, Hoban, Osborne, Cameron and Shapps (Green)will all say they cannot comment on individual cases.
DeleteAnd yet will happily comment on the singular case of Mick Philpott (despicable as his actions and motives were) and use this tragedy to vindicate their welfare policies.
What makes no sense at all about this : the college were happy to compromise and just let me come in for a few hours a week to get my basic teaching qualification. Maximus refused even though they had nothing to offer beyond useless 'courses' and the sort of zero hours, unskilled work that was probably unpaid (they would not say if it was minimum wage). I could have fitted it in but was not allowed to. I had stayed on at the college for six months (paying my own fares) while also sending out job applications. The jobcentre staff jeered that 'if you were any good they'd hire you' not without the basic qualification, they couldn't. I was working with adults that were mainly refugees and learning not just English but also basic literacy. Some women (from Bangladesh and Somalia) were thrilled at being able to read and write without having to ask someone else. I loved my job and felt privileged to be there.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be a hangover from the rules that have applied for a long time. You couldn't do a training course and still be available for work. But that was waived at the discretion of the Jobcentre. It should also be waived at the discretion of the WP provider, who can easily turn the training you're doing to their own advantage.
DeleteI agree with Gissajob. Write this up in full and send it to the Guardian, with a copy to your MP.