To withdraw my job applications when employers want me to do an unpaid trial shift?

Meanwhile, every teacher is expected to plan and teach an unpaid "trial lesson" as standard or you can't get a job as a teacher in this country. Planning it in your own time around your own workload, providing resources yourself as well as the time wasted waiting around while all the other candidates do their unpaid trial lesson. Given any random class with no knowledge of their abilities, individual learning needs or behaviour. Expected to learn the behaviour policy of the school in advance and follow it. They managed fine without this nonsense during Covid but have gone straight back to it again. And they wonder why they can't get teachers.

I'd love to see the NHS try this. Could you imagine? We're hiring a surgeon, just show us you can actually do a surgery before we make you a job offer, and stand around outside theatre doing nothing while all the other candidates do the same surgery on different patients. Some of the patients will be rowdy or obnoxious and we'll just blame it on you and if we don't really want you to work here we'll purposely give you someone who you can't operate on then demand to know why you didn't perform the surgery.

I'd abolish these sort of work trials completely. If we don't need to see a surgeon do their job before hiring them (which we don't), or to check if a pilot can land a plane to our satisfaction (also doesn't happen), no one needs to see if someone can scan a barcode with a barcode scanner then ask a customer to pay for the item.

I did get the job after the one unpaid trail I did but how they treated staff when I got the job was really poor. If there was a corner to be cut on paying you or on tips, they found it. It’s telling you everything you need to know.

If you desperately need a job and the money, don’t withdraw your application but make it clear you’ll do one shift and keep looking for other roles that won’t do this. If you have a job already, just withdraw the applications. I’d say this is the only way they will realise they need to treat people better but unfortunately someone will always desperately need a job.

Absolutely don’t do this. If they hire you and you are rubbish all the power is with them to fire you. There is absolutely no way this should be legal.

Exactly, and this is why probation periods exist.

Yep, totally unacceptable. A pub near us used to do this at Christmas and new year, put load of people on a trial shift to fill the difficult slots on days others didn't want to work. It was awful for the potential employees but also awful for customers who were being served by totally newbies at high pressure times.

Depends on the kind of job a local pub got into trouble (socially not legally) awhile ago for doing trial weekend shifts for pot washing during the busy seasons never giving anyone a job because the job didn't exist they just needed an extra pair of hands occasionally and didn't want to pay for it came to a head when one parent got annoyed and posted on Facebook turns out they did it a lot to teenagers over a couple of years no-one ever got the job no-one ever got paid now they cant get anyone in for unpaid trial shifts

Shame

Yes, don't agree to it.

There's a risk you'll take someone on who is not up to the job - you mitigate that by interviewing people carefully. They're either taking the piss or testing to see how much they can get away with - either way - you don't want to work at a place like that.

YANBU

A few years ago I did a free trial shift for a casual job, was told how great I had done, and asked to do another one.

I refused and withdrew my application. It gave me a window into how the company treated people.

They were utterly dumbfounded. Unsurprisingly the company are constantly advertising for staff!

An unpaid trial SHIFT is fine, a week is not.

I didn't know that even happened in the UK. I've always been paid for training.