TWO-WEEK UNPAID PLACEMENT AT DISCOUNT STORE MAY HAVE BEEN ILLEGAL
A graduate is suing the government over an unpaid two-week work placement at Poundland which she was told to complete by her local job centre – or face losing her Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA).
Cait Reilly, 22 — a geology graduate from Birmingham University — had been seeking experience in the museum sector, but was told she must complete a “mandatory” fortnight at the discount high street store instead, or forfeit her £53 a week JSA.
The job centre — in King’s Heath, Birmingham — was acting under the government’s highly controversial Work Programme, in which young jobseekers are denied their right to the National Minimum Wage for up to eight weeks and forced to work in supermarkets and other high-street brands in order to keep their benefits.
Cait told the BBC:
“My adviser told me that there was an open day to find out about retail jobs. When I actually found out that it was a work experience placement that could take up to six weeks of unpaid work, I approached her and told her i wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go ahead with it. At which point she said “Well it is mandatory and if you don’t complete it you will lose your JSA benefits.”
She said that being forced to take unpaid work in a field unrelated to her career plans was “frustrating” — and raised questions about who was really benefitting from these mandatory placements:
“We had been promised training in various retail roles, but in actual fact all we did was what seemed like the labour that other people weren’t doing. I want to get into the museum world. Working at Poundland gave me no relevant experience towards that career at all. I was taken away from work placements at museums, given no valuable experience or training and potentially missed a lot of opportunities in the field I was interested in.”
Yesterday on Graduate Fog, we wrote about our growing concerns that some brands — particularly high street retailers — appear to be taking advantage of government-backed employment schemes in order to cut staff costs and boost profits. We are worried that they are using schemes to replace proper, paid shop jobs with unpaid or low-paid apprentices and Work Programme jobseekers. But Poundland hit back against this suggestion, saying:
“We work in partnership with JobCentre Plus and other government funded organisations to implement a comprehensive work placement programme designed to provide on-the-job training for those looking to retail as a career opportunity.
“Our partnership with JobCentre Plus is a positive step to get people back into work. It doesn’t replace our recruitment activity, but adds to the number of colleagues we have working with us.”
Public Interest lawyers, acting on Cat’s behalf, have sent a letter-before-action, the first stage in a potential judicial review, challenging the Jobseeker’s Allowance (Employment, Skills and Enterprise) Regulations 2011. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is due to respond to Ms Reilly’s case on 14 December. Outlining her reasons for pursuing legal actions, Cait said:
“We’re hoping we can approach the government and ask them to maybe think about how they’re putting these plans into action.
In what Graduate Fog sees as the start of a backlash against a government policy which ignores young people’s right to fair pay for their work, Cait has become the first young jobseeker to publicly take a stand against this appalling treatment. We support her 100%, wish her the very best of luck and will keep you updated with her progress.
(This blog post was originally published on 7 December 2011. The sudden flurry of publicity around it is because the right-wing press has only just noticed the story and twigged how important it is!)
*Would you accept a “mandatory” internship at Poundland?
Who benefits the most from these unpaid placements – jobseekers or retailers? Are you pleased Cait is taking a stand? Have you been told to complete a compulsory internship as part of the Work Programme?
Although there are a couple of things about Cait’s case that would seem to confuse the issue, I see it like this:
Most people who regulary visit Graduate Fog are agreed that unpaid internships are illegal, unfair and must be stopped. We have already established that they don’t lead to paid jobs – they replace paid jobs. We need HMRC to enforce the NMW law for interns – ie ban unpaid internships. There is no reason why young people should be the only group not protected by this law. The same principles should apply to employers of interns as apply to employers of Polish construction workers. Undercutting the NMW wage (even with the consent of the worker) creates a slippery slope to everybody earning less and less (in fact – as we have seen with interns – zero.)
So unpaid internships are bad enough. But what Cait was asked / made to do was a compulsory unpaid internship. And she was asked / made to do it by her job centre, acting on the instruction of our own government, who you would think would be aware that it is illegal for anybody to work for free (unless doing genuine volunteering for charities).
To me, that is what is shocking.
The fact that she is claiming £52 a week JSA while she was doing it is a bit of a side issue, to me. She shouldn’t have needed any JSA, if Poundland had been paying her, as they should have been.
If Poundland had offered Cait a paid job, I might have a problem with her turning it down and continuing to claim JSA so she could continue to do endless unpaid internships in the museum sector. But that’s not what happened.
@Tanya de Grunwald
I’m sorry, but your words go completly without merrit
“We have already established that they don’t lead to paid jobs — they replace paid jobs. So they actually do the opposite”
Statistic and proof is needed. I know many people who have gone from unpaid jobs for allowing them to have their foot in a door.
She isn’t being given labour. She has been given an oppertunity. Look at it this way.
You own a house, and are giving residents money to buy food for themselves. Each resident wants to do something different with there life. One day you say to one of the residents. “Can you go help out this farmer on his field, if you do a good job, he might say to other farmers about your work.” the person replies “No, I don’t want to do farm work, I will keep taking money from you untill I find something I want to do.”
I’d sure as hell tell them to do the work or you’re cut off. I have a friend who was involved in this Scheme, he worked for 2 weeks for free, and was offered a job at another store because they say that he worked well in the envrioment.
She was being paid Job seekers allowance, to help out in the store. I can understand her complaint if they made her do it for months, with just the Job Seekers allowance, however to try and sue the Goverment over them attempting to help her? It’s pathetic.
Doubt she will get hired now if her would be employers have read this
@Cameron
You are entitled to your opinion, of course. But I have been working in this field for 2 years now, and have witnessed how this situation has been allowed to spiral completely out of control. I have many good reasons to believe that unpaid internships are not a solution to youth unemployment – they are big part of the problem. And now the government is making things worse by effectively promoting unpaid internships through job centres, helping exploitative employer to break the law.
As for statistics to prove my points, you are right I have none – but there is a good reason for that. Interns are an invisible army – they are very difficult to track as they slip between the cracks of most data collection monitors.
If you need proof that unpaid internships replace paid jobs, have a look on any of the big job boards. They will be plastered with ads for proper jobs, doing plenty of real work that companies need to be done – yet they will be unpaid. What are those, if they weren’t paid jobs that are now unpaid internships?
I think some of the big companies have cottoned onto this scheme and abused it over Christmas. Youngsters worked in shops and pubs over the Christmas period when extra staff were required . They did shifts which the regular workers would have been paid time and a half at least.They then kept their dole money (worked out at £2 an hour ).After Christmas were told no vacancies available .
@Cameron: Do you take me for stupid? OF COURSE I know that full-time work is paid better (in terms of SALARY) than part-time work because it involves more hours. How My point is that you brought up the spurious idea of her wanting a so-called “full-time wage”, when that was never the issue. I don’t actually know
@Cameron: Do you take me for stupid? OF COURSE I know that full-time work is paid better (in terms of SALARY) than part-time work because it involves more hours. How DARE you try to claim victory over me by claiming that I don’t know something that I QUITE OBVIOUSLY DO, and by pretending that that was the point of the discussion when you must know perfectly well that it was not? Either you have not read properly what I wrote, or you are deliberately misinterpreting it.
My point is that you brought up the spurious idea of her wanting a so-called “full-time wage” for part-time work, when that was never the issue. I don’t actually know whether Cait Reilly’s compulsory internship was part-time or full-time. But no-one was ever suggesting that she ought to have been paid for part-time work as if she were working full-time. The issue was that she was not being paid AT ALL for the hours she was forced to work at Poundland, whatever those hours were. Incidentlly, 16 hours a week on the NMW is £97.28 a week, which is still considerably more than JSA.
Also you have got me totally wrong on the “not having a job” thing. I do have a full-time job, in which I have been for over 3 years. As it happens I work in a museum, and I encounter many interns and volunteers, so I do know something about this. It *is* a “real work environment” and not like an academic environment; you are doing a job and meeting new people, and if you do it well you will get a reference. If you want to work in the museum world, then a reference from someone working a museum is more useful than a reference from a manager in Poundland.
When you are able to debate with people based on what they ACTUALLY wrote, and not what you want to pretend they wrote, and when you are able to stop stereotyping people, come back and we can discuss this.
@Cameron I find it disgusting that someone like you works for the council. No wonder nothing gets fixed by those in power.
As graduates, we were actively encouraged by schools i.e. council/government bodies to go to university to improve our lives. We were told statistics that would tell us we would get higher wages if we did go to university in the long-term. They barely touched base on going on apprenticeships, let alone just going straight to a job. All of those that did not get in to or wish to go to universities were made to feel like losers by the school.
Why would the government actively encourage people to go to university, when really, there are no jobs related to hardly any of the subjects taught in university? The truth is, it’s a big scam. The government may lose money from those who are never able to pay it back, but they make a lot of money from a) those who do and b) foreign students. After that, they put us on these schemes and don’t count unpaid interns as ‘unemployed’, so that their stats look good, as Tanya said, “an invisible army”. It’s for political gain of whoever is in power at the time.
We HAVE to claim JSA, otherwise we can’t survive. The people sponging off the benefits is not us, the graduates, but the so-called ’employers’, like Poundland. They are stealing our travel expenses, subsistence expenses and our actual work, plus our future chances of paying back our loans which we borrowed. You don’t walk in to an Apple store and say, “Hey, give me that MacBook Pro, it’ll be a good learning experience for your company.” Contrary to popular belief, we did not all take courses on Barbie and most of us have real transferable skills and intelligence. It’s just that people have not had a reality check and have been able to get away with giving out unpaid work for such a long time that it is spreading to other industries on a widespread scale.
In addition, you yourself are lowering your own wages by supporting such a scheme and going against brave people like Cait. People like you will be replaced by juniors, juniors will be replaced by interns and so forth. In fact, I just read today that in one company that was pretty much failing, nearly ALL but one staff was an unpaid intern. A company was stealing work on an enmasse scale. They absolutely do not deserve to be in business, they are devaluing the marketplace.
By the way, I worked very hard before, during and now post-university. My university course was not great, even though I did not study a Barbie course, so I went out to lots of extra-curricular activities to build up connections and skills. Technically, I know a lot of people. However, they are ALL pretty much after free work. I can’t change to another industry because of the way internships have spread across ALL industries. I WANT a job so I can pay back my university fees. Plus they are taking interest from me, so no, it’s not totally funded by the government, if anything.
I think we all agree that theirs a clear divide between a skilled job and an unskilled one when talking work experience. You just cant pull someone out of the crowd and expect them to be say a laywer for example, it takes application, the application many a student put in yet get no recognition for.
Im not saying they should’nt do other trades in times of need or through a lack of work in their sector, just that students are’nt idiots and can easly learn to fill shelves in half a day and thats being generous at that.
The current crop of placements im sorry to say accured by JCP, work for benefits and the Work Programme just are’nt useful in anyway to those with a head on their shoulders. If you want that, you will have to locate it yourself currently,which you can and none of the above can say no to it.
JCP and the others run on playing on the individuals ignorance to the game and this girl is a prime example. Im not saying its all JCP’s fault as all the info on it was available before it started so this girl should have done her homework. None the less she was still tricked and this needs to be remembered.
It was mentioned in another post about payed internships and as nice as that sounds just is’nt what it has ever been about. Far to many people think just because they have a qualification that their job ready when infact its only half the picture and thats why apprentiships are the better option to a course backed up with a bit of work experience.
All in all dont rely on others (ie JCP,work programme,etc) to help bring about your career plans and be prepared to make many a sacrifice, especially in todays climate.
Dont take things on trust, do your own research and before anyone says JCP wont let you, Your talking rubbish. Yes i know they will try and threaten you with sanctions but they can only do this if you have breached your agreement, Seeking further advice or thinking about something is’nt a breach of your agreement.
JCP and THE WORK PROGRAMME’s mission statement is about facilitating your employment needs, i repeat YOUR needs, not societies,stats, YOURS so dont forget it and dont allow it to be otherwise.
The real world is about others agendas, you just need to find the ones akin to yours.
GETTING FROM CAVES TO HOUSES TOOK THINKERS, NOT AN UNSKILLED WORKFORCE, THEY SADLY ELECTED FOR A LIFE OF SLAVERY AND POOR PROSPECTS.
“@Cameron I find it disgusting that someone like you works for the council. No wonder nothing gets fixed by those in power.”
In power? I’m an Apprentice, I sort files and print traffic reports. I’m sorry you find me disgusting, but clearly you are reflecting your own self digust at others. Things to get fixed, but there is a budget, which unfortuantly means not everything can get fixed at once.
If you guys can’t have a decent reasonable conversation without insults. Don’t bother having one.
We’ve all gone for the 3 for the price of 2 deal so its only natural for government to see how they can best prosper on the money they spend.
This whether the individual claimant chooses to believe or not benefits also themselves on quite a few levels like a constant work history for one so working for benefit on both sides does indeed benefit all.
Sadly in practice it just isnt working dew to agendas and a capitalistic society thats so out of control that no one will do nothing unless theirs something in it for them.
Its non productive to say its training when infact its value for money, to reduce stats and allow people in the private employment sector to lazly earn money by not trying.
If theirs any doubt in my words simply ask JCP and the likes of Ingeus and A4E what placements they have, see how many are engineering,law,science,teaching,etc based, then how many are unskilled.
Using this girl as an example what training did she get that she’d benefit from?
How hard is it to pick something up and put it somewhere else all day every day?
Health and safety is mandatory so employed staff have to go through it even if they did it as part of their qualification,you dont need to train to turn up on time, where stuff is and paper work required is about direction and again isnt training, so what training did she get exactly?
Im not devaluing such a job, just that really who are you kidding please when using the word training.
As an experience however we do benefit as if it isnt current and relative, you arent getting the job,sadly dew to a lack of diversity in placements all will happen is even more applicants applying for the same job and as such cancels itself out as most placements dont lead to employment such as is promised.
When i was a lad still at school (latter years)i had a job at one of my local supermarkets which apart from being payed, i went into with zero experience. I was up and running in less than 1 shift and that includes health and safety training. So this new trend adopted by employers open to these schemes to have multiple applicants all doing unpayed work for 2wks, just for 1 or 2 positions is a barefaced abuse of the current situation and climate.
I would imagine its quite rare for any supermarket to have an individual just walk in and ask to volunteer so its obvious what their upto and the government are fueling this whether their aware of it or not.
This scheme needs regulating if its ever going to work and is something the government has yet to do.
Each placement should be assessed in terms of how long it actually takes to if at all to train to do a giving job.
Place people only where they stand to learn something and that the public benefit more than the employer (ie, police,energy,etc) as the worlds not going to fall apart because no ones flipping burgers at macdonalds. (exceptions should be made when a client expresses an interest in the food,retail industry,etc).
Enforce diversity by giving each job sector a placement limit.
Allow only 2 placements per employer and those offering a job at the end can only have one applicant per position being applied for at a time(reason, forces employer to take a more active interest and highlights any abuses or a need to train the employer to better select candidates).
These are just a few and even complete only form part of the picture as the employers needs have to also be taken into account what with them recently stating applicants lack the necessary skills for roles.
A body set up to understanding the plight of employers would better equip the placement providers with the correct tools when selecting candidates, not to mention advise education on the direction it needs to take to become current to todays needs.
Governments always fail to realise long term effects and in this case if done again will produce yet more ineffectal schemes open to abuse, except this time by employers and placement providers, such is the case currently.
If you want to be heard then video tape your placement and upload it to youtube and place links on sites like these so the whole world can see how yours went or not if the case maybe. Get from JCP in writing exactly what training and why you require it, what you stand to gain from such a placement so if it doesnt come to bare you have evidence to give to JCP so they can take the employer to task and report back to you as their there for you, not the other way round (public servants and even the PM are elected by the people to serve the people and dont let them forget it).
Wayne and others what you are all forgetting is that it is a condition on JSA that claimants HAVE to undertake placements etc, the daft thing is that it really isn’t that hard to find a job, maybe a job that you actually like is hard to find but a basic job that pays more than the dole isn’t that hard to get, especailly for a highly educated intelligent person.
@Ian I actually found it very difficult to find a basic job during a break from university, despite having many other extra-cirricular and professional qualifications. Employers don’t want to hire someone that is overqualified. If they’re overqualified, they’re clearly not interested in doing that job in the long-term, therefore employers would rather hire someone who had no other interest than to work for them for a long time. Now, I wouldn’t even be able to replace several years of university with ‘unemployment’, that too would look inadequate in an already extremely competitive jobs market.
In addition, having the government endorse unpaid work at Poundland encourages further unregulated (as Wayne said), unpaid placements actually REPLACING real jobs, making it even harder to even get a PAID basic job. Remember, Ms. Reilly was NOT offered a fully-paid job before or even after her unpaid placement at Poundland, she was just forced in to it or lose her only financial support, the JSA. It doesn’t take a genius to stack shelves, I’m pretty sure she was perfectly capable of stacking shelves and operating the cash till without this so-called ‘training experience’.
Finding work is easy providing its work your looking for and not a specific trade, Its getting past the 20 or so of the 50 applying for this one position who unlike me have the relevent experience and or qualification/s.
I go for alsorts of jobs as you just cant be choosy in the current climate and the above along with other things happens a lot when applying.
Intelligence doesnt equal experience in an employers eyes no matter the job being applied for. The placement idea isnt a new one and this carbon copy will cause the same damage the last did which was to over saturate the choosen trades which at the time was customer service,admin,etc.
Job stats from jobsites will show the level of applicants applying for the above are higher than those that werent supported.
As i said in a previous post the government didnt think long term when putting together such a scheme.
Despite what verbal tactics the government use to get everyone to think that the unemployed are picky or dont want to work this simply isnt the case as recently redundant claimants are finding out.
Unemployment is turning into currently the abyss of no hope and will continue to do so untill fresh approaches are taken.
I have been keeping a journal as im looking to write a book on the subject and have set about finding whats what.
I found that i could get an interview at poundland if i did a 2 week placement yet when i walked in off the street to apply got a dear john.
This also ocurred at other places entered into the scheme.
I also set about talking to staff in these places and discovered lost staff werent being replaced by the normal method, the most common reason given being “were would you if you could get free labour for 2 to 4 weeks”.
Some payed staff also stated that the placements were held over them as a threat or means of control if you prefer.
Like i said, working for benefits and placements are a great idea but only if done right like any job.
As a business owner myself I find it a great idea making people work for free,as this as allowed me to sack some staff and make greater profit for myself,I can now go abroad 5 times a year instead of 4
I have also been placed on this manadatory placement scheme and am now at Bedford Poundland working more hours than the staff each week and often working harder. I have been informed that there may be a job on offer at the end of the 8 weeks there but have training and experience in Computers and am on the Govenment heros of 2012 scheme which is designed to help people who have never used a computer to get started. I have nowever so far been unable to help anyone as I spend 8 weeks before christmas 2011 working for a local recycling scheme for 15 hours a week and am currently working 30 hours a week at Poundland. I trained in computers and these skills are being wasted. Why aren’t we being helped into job opportunities that would help not hinder.
@James and anyone else who has experience of workfare
Please, please submit your stories to http://www.boycottworkfare.org. The more stories they get, the stronger the case against workfare becomes.
Well my stepson has just today completed his 8 week work placement,he previously was working,but had to have surgery for a rugby injury. He was unable to claim due to JCP/DWP screw up.Ok he finished today,up at 0600 3.5 mile walk to work off at 1600,3.5 walk home bathe,eat and sleep.He had high hopes of being hired,lots of work and they praised his work ethic..sorry not at this time..why? 2 more placements due in next week.. why buy the cow when the milk is for free..he is gutted
God Bless you, Cait. Sue the hell out of those worthless bastards.
I was unemployed 4 years ago after working for a company for 10 years. The company paid for a course after we where all paid off. The course cost £700 . I started doing voluntary work at a place to support my course as it was a job I wanted to end up doing (still doing the job and love it) . The JSA tried to stop my JSA because I was doing the voluntary work and course on my own bat. Because they didn’t arrange it they said I’m not entitle to do it myself and they have to tell me what I can do and not do. But in the end up I still got my JSA. I finish my level 2 got a full time job within 6 months unemployed. Just finish my level 3 in health and social care, now I’ll be going on to the next level. The JSA tried to get me to apply for jobs I had no interest in. I’m glad I stuck to my guns and went and done my course.
I got my interview tomorrow for poundland for the six weeks training thing which if I do well, would lead me to working there.
The lady who told me about my interview had asked me if I was on JSA and I am currently not so she said to me to sign up for it. :S
Safa, she’s told you to do that because she can’t legally take you on for 6-weeks unpaid unless you’re on JSA.
Lazy cow, she should do any form of work and class it as voluntary if she’s willing to receive free handouts. Get a job at burger king while looking for a career ‘in my chosen career path’ instead of being a parasite. Absolute idiot.
Ryan,ryan,ryan, when did macdonalds ever help evolve society?
Its a crime actually to have semi to no skill levels as it highlights how lazy society is and not the individual that you speak of.
Everybody should be educated and to a high degree. Put it this way,if a wonderful thing can come from a team of thirty scientists and engineers like the very pc your on,imagine what you could have done with 7 billion people working on it.
Safa, its a shame this comment was not taped as it clearly highlights how businesses are manipulating this scheme all in the name of free labour. What the ryans of this world dont realize is, that it is actually impacting on the working classes job security now employers have a free employee pool. Yep, that volunteer in the wings might just be your replacement and even if not i cant imagine ryan leaving one job if hes working currently to do a 6 week free trial when looking for his next job. Yep, once adopted will nodoubt become the norm as their will always be unemployment so that saying if you have a job, its easier to get another will firmly be a thing of the past.
Heres something the working class might not know.
Their is and has been for decades loads of unemployed people volunteering without any force required. Whats interesting is that JCP/DWP hide them and actually do their upmost to stop it.
The mandatory work activity allows the claimant to work for 30 hours a week for 4 weeks,the government wants to extend this to 6 months and have already piloted it in some of the UK. Now if your not on this scheme but still on JSA you can only volunteer for any job no more than 15hrs59min59secs aweek or your benefits stopped.
If unemployed while on JSA and looking for work you are not allowed to study a skill alongside all this fulltime. If you do your benefits stopped.
1:ITS SANCTIONABLE TO VOLUNTEER 16HRS AND ON IF NOT ON THE MWA.
2:ITS SANCTIONABLE TO STUDY FULLTIME WHILE ON JSA AND LOOKING FOR WORK.
This said, hopefully the ryans of this world will think more carefully before entering an argument they clearly know very little about.
I see common sense has prevailed in this case – result
Actually, the verdict in the case was that the unpaid placement wasn’t unlawful but making it mandatory could be. I’m disgusted by the attitude of people here who say hat if you’re unemployed you should do any job for free. Why should you? How does the unemployed working for a private business-that should be paying them-benefit the taxpayers having to pay the JSA/housing costs to support that person? (Which they wouldn’t need if the business paid them what it should for their work!)Community or charity work is different-but I still don’t think people should be forced to do these things, unless they have no experience or skills already. Cait had already worked in a shop, what could she learn from another placement?! As Wayne said, the idea of ‘training’ is a joke, anyone with half a brain can master these menial jobs in a couple of hours. Yes, there is a case for people taking a menial paid job to support themselves rather than working unpaid whilst claiming benefits to try and get the job they really want, but there’s NO CASE FOR THEM TO WORK FOR FREE IN A MENIAL-OR OTHERWISE-JOB. I hope the people that think this is OK one day experience the despair of unemployment and have to work unpaid in a role they could do with their eyes closed. Then maybe they’ll get some sense and empathy. It’s all about trying to blame the victims (the unemployed)instead of confronting the difficult economic problems and internship situation that are the real issues. It’s obvious that having people working unpaid will mean companies use them rather than creating paid roles. What part of that do the ‘you’re unemployed, do anything for free’ brigade not understand?
If anyone’s interested, the full 50-page judgement is here:
http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/reilly-wilson-sec-state-work-pensions.pdf
Well said Caitlyn.
I wonder if this case might have succeeded if it had been taken as a straightforward Minimum Wage claim?
My Point is that there are far too many People in this country that do not feel that they should work, what harm would have come to these unemployed people if they had done a bit of unpaid work for a few weeks if only to show those of us that pay tax etc that they are willing, their unwillingness is an insult to those of us that Dow work hard in jobs we don’t neccesarily enjoy
How do you know there are loads of people who don’t want to work? How would it hurt the unemployed to do unpaid work? Well, apart from making their low self esteem worse, not that much individually, but collectively-and this is what we’re talking about-there will be even less paid jobs available because companies will take the constant supply of free labor instead. This drives down wages for everyone= more people needing benefits due to unemployment/low wages, more money at everyone else’s expense for all the highly paid managers. Why can’t the Jobcentre arrange paid work placements if it’s so important that the unemployed prove they want to work? Never mind that many unemployed people choose to volunteer anyway to try and become more employable-but do something for a good cause rather than a private company profiting from their misery. To all you people saying the unemployed have it easy at your expense: Leave your job and go on the dole yourselves then! (Don’t claim you’re too principled to do it, you know it’s a rubbish life on a low income.) Stop falling for the scape goating of those at the bottom by the government determined to deflect attention from the real culprits: itself, bankers, tax evaders and greedy, immoral employers.
I’ll tell you how I know there are people unwilling to work, the last time I placed a job advert I had several people calling me to ask “if I could say they had been to interview as the job centre is on their case” not to mention those that turned up and deliberately interviewed badly
OK, that shows you know there are some unemployed people reluctant/unwilling to work, not the majority. That’s a narrow sample you can’t draw conclusions on the whole group from. Even if most unemployed people don’t want to work (which from my experience is untrue, the majority would love a job) that doesn’t justify unpaid placements (especially menial ones) that benefit only the business-not the claimant or the taxpayer.
The above posting is spam Tanya!
thanks MaryB! have deleted
My Partner has just been put o 4 weeks unpaid work experience.He would do anything.Hence why he accepted the work.
However the place where he is is disgusting…All he is doing is picking up the plastic veg crates from supermarkets,breaking the. apart and putting them on a conveyor belt.This is 9-5 with 2,half hour breaks.He has a skin condition which has severley worsened since starting.He really wants to work.More than anything.But can he ask to change his placement?Its getting him so down not being paid as we already struggle.He wont say anything.Just turn ip on time for work.Work really hard til 5.But im finding it hard watching him be ground down.
i had to do 4 weeks at poundland so shall i start complaining!
Dear Whoever,
Try this it works for me:
When I was asked to sign the job seekers agreement, I politely asked if the job seekers agreement was a contract and if it was governed by English Contract Law, the JCP staff member became confused and could not answer the question, so I politely asked to see the manager.
The manager confirmed that the job seekers agreement was in fact a contract, I then replied with, do I have the right to make amendments to the job seekers agreement contract.
after the manager checked he said yes, so all the things within the contract that I did not agree too, I crossed out with a pen, like all that crazy stuff to prove that I am looking for work, Job search, I also crossed out the part the allows JCP to apply sanctions to me entitlement I then put my initials by the amendments and signed it, I then politely instructed the JCP staff member to sign it, job done.
now if any JCP staff ask me about job search I politely remind them that I have not entered in to any agreement with them to prove that I am looking for work, and if they ever dare mention sanctions, I remind the that my amended signed job seekers agreement contract is enforceable in a court of law and I would seek damages, court cost’s , and interest, plus compensation.
JCP don’t bother me anymore they do not ask me to prove I just go in sign on and then I am gone back to my happy life any everything is going according to my plans.
this also works well with the likes of A4e, I made amendments to there contract and when they started to mention work placement I politely reminded them that I am not mandated to go on any work placement as I did not agree and gave no consent to work placement please go and have a look at my signed agreement/contract, after they looked at my amended signed agreement/contract, they backed down and told me that I do not have to go on any work placement.
another good idea is if you are sent to the likes of A4e make sure you send them by registered post statutory notice under section 10 and 11 of the Data protection Act, so that they can not process your data, in fact if you don’t they keep your personal data on file for up to six years.
and that’s how you destroy JCP just remember everything you do in England is a contract so don’t sign it until you make amendments to it.
good luck peace on earth brothers and sister.