Sainsbury's, TK Maxx & Waterstones refuse to provide Mandatory Work and Poundland is reviewing policy due to Human Rights Act
Submitted by Johnston on Fri, 17/02/2012 - 1:39am
"Clothing store chain joins Sainbury's and Waterstone's in pulling out as Poundland reviews its policy after human rights case" Guardian Newspaper
If Mandatory Work is found to be unlawful what alternatives could we use?
Cattle prod ... taser ... lobotomy ... deportation ...
Shelter has also confirmed they will not get involved in Mandatory Work Activity. Prof Dan Finn recently said that the Pre Work Programme Work Experience scheme was "exploitative"
Oops here we go again. Mandatory work activity is horrific; it's slave labour; its illegal; breach of human rights; benefits should be at national wage average and on it goes.....
Well I thought if a Director of the sponsor of this website, Inclusion, said Work Experience is "exploitative", that would be of interest?
Actually, Professor Finn is mostly a Professor at Portsmouth University, but also an Associate Director of Inclusion.
Meanwhile, one of our previous Senior Researchers, Nicola Smith from the TUC, has a blog post up.
http://touchstoneblog.org.uk/2012/02/how...
Remember, there are different programmes here. It's not all the Mandatory Work Activity. Some have 'community benefit', some don't. They have greater or lesser degrees of mandation. Some are more or less similar to community punishments handed down by the courts. The different programmes for different groups may have different effects.
Not sure if I imagined this, but wasn't MWA meant to be "of community benefit" originally.
The problem is there are so many "schemes" making use of work experience activity that the uninitiated more often than not have no idea what provision they are talking about. It's like the latest "disabled people will have to undertake unlimited hours work experience" rubbish that came out at the end of the week. It's a load of band wagon jumping, ill informed protagonists who have got nothing better to do than spout human rights like it bears any relation to the real human rights violations that are taking place as we speak all over the world.
Also, not sure if I imagined this, but hasn't work experience been part of welfare to work for as long as ... oh I'VE BEEN ALIVE!!!!!!!!!! Why didn't anyone kick off when Peacocks, Bookers, TK Maxx, Poundland etc were taking people for work experience under New Deal, Flexible New Deal, CTF, YTS, Work Based Learning? Why? Because there wasn't a band with a wagon then. Now everyone's got a tune and you can jump on whichever wagon is decorated in your colours.
And don't think Poundland (who have been "exploiting" the unemployed for as long as I can remember to bring people their £1 bargains) are pulling out because of the human rights act. They're pulling out until the heat dies down and DWP win in court then they'll be back. Same with TK Maxx et al. They're big businesses making big money and they won't stop doing that in whatever way they can, it's just a bit hot in the kitchen at the moment.
Better get the tea on now. :)
Boo Hoo the following organiations are no longer going to be offering Mandatory Work
Sainsbury’s
99p stores
TK Maxx
Waterstones
Shelter
Marie Curie
Scope
and Tesco's has requested the DWP to remove all benefit conditionality from it's Flagship Work Experience scheme.
Not much of a Daily Mail fan, but the article with the title
"This is not wartime Nazi Germany and Cameron's attacks on the vulnerable and needy must be stopped"
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/debate/article-2102484/This-wartime-Nazi-G...
Certainly captures W2W food for thought
Even less so when it comes to the Daily Star
However you look at it, this is forced labour
Stuff your workfare – let’s see a bit more “work fair”!
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/columnists/view/236154/-Slave-jobs-stacking-up/
It seems everyone's favourite provider is under investigation:
"The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed that a probe into A4e, headed by Emma Harrison is under way.
Police raided the companies offices in Slough, and have indicated they plan to make further visits to other A4e offices throughout the country.
The police are investigating claims that the company had put some people in jobs for just one day, but claimed the funding nonetheless.
It is believed that Work and Pensions Minister Chris Grayling was last night made aware of the investigation into A4e."
As Lazarus says, there are so many programmes out there that the 'band wagon' is well and truely 'jumped on'. For many customers 'Work Experince' is a vital tool to get them back into work. Under the New Deal Voluntary Option we deliverd, we were only able to arrange this with charities and in the 'not for profit' sector. We used to get lots of our customers moaning back then because the range of experince we could offer was limited, indeed for some vocational areas non existant. As a Work Programme provider we no longer have this limitation and the customers are happier for it. Everyone we place, be it in a 'not for profit' organisation or the commercial sector, is being placed because they want to be and see it as helping their chance of finding paid work.
'Mandatory Work Activity' (MWA) however is a different matter (and a different contract that we declined to become involved in). As a charity with a focus on voluntary activity, this didn't sit with our charitable objectives. That having been said, I have no difficulty with the purpose of this provision provided the 'community benefit' criteria is met in identifying placements. However, the challenge you then face is that most 'not for profit' organisations are staffed by 'nice people' with a social conscience who are pleased to provide placements so long as that provision isn't a 'net draw' on their own valuable resources. Unfortunately, the level of supervision needed for many MWA customers, who will no sooner be inducted and trained before they will be off again, makes it ‘on balance’ not worth their while taking someone who is going to resent being there.
We'll get this put on the front page as well, but here will do for now.
http://www.tescoplc.com/news/news-releas...
Tesco response is to provide an offer that improves the terms on offer, including the option of paid work experience with a guaranteed job offer for those who complete the placement satisfactorily.
Not every company can or will do this, but it probably reflects why they got into it in the first place. They note they've taken on 300 from the 1500 placements delivered to date (not all of which will have been completed).
The Tesco statement is not completely accurate, it's 1400 placements in the last 4 months, which is about 168,000 hours of unpaid work, but 300 jobs in the last year.
I did notice Tesco blamed an IT error for their 'Work at Tesco for your JSA' JC+ adverts, yes adverts, a lot of IT errors there, probably why their figures are off a bit too.
It's easy to see how Tesco can make £3.5 billion in profit. Emma Harrison must be green with envy ;)
The Guardian are declaring the Tesco movement and IDS's defence of work experience today as "the result of a very quick campaign conducted through social media, the outpouring of public opposition via endless radio phone-ins, and the threat of a national day of action". I can't think of a more apt response than, God help us (and I'm not religious, so if anyone out there is then I think praying now may be appropriate).
A "quick campaign conducted through social media" doesn't equal a well informed, educated, considered, and or well constructed argument to anything. I hate to think how far people will go when it comes to following blindly because someone with an agenda tweets an opinion. It's like the world playing Chinese Whispers. Frightening, don't you think? Am I the only person who doesn't want a world where social media has this "power". Are all policy decisions going to end up playing to the populist notions of a tiny handful of people who have the time and inclination to "blog" or "tweet" or post something on their "wall"?
Is social media the monster that we won't be able to put back in the box?
@Kaz. Give over, Do you actually think we can ask for much more from Tesco than a programme with guaranteed jobs? - Not subsidised by the taxpayer. It may not be as big as we'd like, but if they get good employees from it, they could expand it.
@Lazarus. The Social Media thing is just the mainstream media being jealous of others getting there first. Tesco obviously looked to see if this was just the usual Trots (and thus could safely be ignored) or had a wider resonance. They probably have reason for feeling aggrieved about being put in the firing line by a Jobcentre Plus mistake categorising their placements as jobs (appearing on the website) rather than opportunities (only visible via JCP).