Wednesday 19 October 2011

Legal Slavery in the 21st Century

Legal Slavery in the 21st Century
Courtesy of Get Britain Working


A new Job Opportunity has come to my attention at We Want 2 Work. one so astounding I've decided to dedicate a whole blog post to it.


The Job
Work for Tesco, Asda, Primark, Sainsburys, Poundland or Hilton Hotels


Hours: 30 per week       Rate of Pay: £67.50 per week


Job Description: To carry out the same tasks and duties as regular paid colleagues for 6 months. At the end of this period you will be asked to hand your badge back and leave the building to make room for the next batch of slaves 'ahem' I mean Work Experience candidates.


Sound like a job you will apply for?


No, I thought not but thousands of our young unemployed people are being bullied into these positions as part of the Get Britain Working campaign. Is this really the best we have to offer them?


Is it any wonder that the young are taking over the financial centres of many Cities across the globe, including London, Manchester and Glasgow. They have grown up in a corporate society more than any other generation, those of us who are a little older will remember when there was a Greengrocers, Butchers and Bakers within a walkable distance.


Now not only have the likes of Tesco all but wiped out local traders they are using our kids as slave labour. Tesco have already taken some 3,000 18-24 year old's on this scheme designed to keep us fooled about the 'real' jobless figures.


Doing the Maths


£67.50 represents £2.25 per hour, that's 35p less per hour than the minimum Apprentice wage, £2.73 an hour less than the national minimum wages for an 18-20 year old and £3.83 less for someone over 21.


We all also know that there are cost involved in getting to and from work, so I imagine that doing that and trying to live on £67.50 per week is causing an awful lot of hardship.


What it will also be doing of course is lessening the need for these Corporations to hire properly paid staff. They will not be paying those of Work Experience holiday pay, sick pay, pensions or National Insurance Contributions and will just be taking advantage of yet another ill thought out Government work scheme.


I am truly disgusted that this has been allowed to happen. First of all the Government subsidise the Banks, now they are subsidising the work force of large Corporations!


This scheme as I understand it is open to all or most businesses within the UK. I implore every Micro business and SME in the country to take on a candidate and actually teach them something they can use, better still train them in the 6 months you are allowed them on Work Experience to be of use to You and then take them on as an Apprentice. Give these kids a future because if you don't then our future is grim.


How does this make you feel? Please leave a comment, thank you.


Further Reading: http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=4029

My Thanks to 

6 comments:

  1. Unfortunately most company's no matter their size will use these schemes to reduce labour costs, there are some really good company's out there who will use this scheme to be constructive, train someone and take them on, such a shame that these company's are few and far between.

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  2. Michaela Buckley19 October 2011 at 13:06

    Until not too long ago I was on this programme in Southend doing this at Superdrug. I never got the "job" at the end of it. I have since become an apprentice at a small business where my life has improved dramatically. These Jobcentre schemes are simply not worth it.

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  3. I was unfortunately on one of those back to work courses. A few months of being off the unemployment figures. In the first week there were various corporations touting for slaves. You can approach any registered charity and ask them if you can do your time with them instead. This isn't made clear at all to the slaves and seemed to be frowned upon by the recruitment team that pedalled the corporate jobs. It is possible to do some valuable work experience at a charitable organisation, you just have to push for it.

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  4. My brother had to do this at a small local business and the employer was verbally abusive to him,he stuck it out for a few weeks and then refused to go back.

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  5. I wonder how much these corporations are paying the major parties, if not individual ministers, to get the field tilted in their favour.

    Under New "Labour" one minister set up a company that wold get legislation changed for a fee. This was shown on TV. I am certain the same thing goes on under the coalition just better hidden.

    If companies are obliged to pay better wages for employment experience they will simply import cheaper workers from outside the EU. They can always find ways round the regulations

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  6. I got an apprenticeship locally this year, the pay being £2.50 an hour which is the legal apprentice minimum wage. It was 37 hours a week, the same admin duties as the regular admin people, but with added NVQ work. My mental health problems came back with avengence and I was more or less levered out of the job by my bosses who didn't understand mental illness and wanted me gone. It wasn't a nice experience.

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