to think Tesco should fucking well PAY THEIR STAFF?

[QueenOfFlippingEverything]

I know, I know, there have been threads about it already.

But this is so rage-inducing, I want THE WHOLE OF EVERYONE to know about it.

Jobcentre advert placed by Tesco for night shift staff. Who will be paid [drumroll] JSA (£67 a week) plus travel expenses.

Why the fucking fuck should Tesco get their staff for free? Why? Their profits last year were something like £3.5 billion last year!

I know who I think is taking the piss here, and its not the unemployed people who will be forced to work night shifts at Tesco for their £67 a week

Fantastic quotes, Nun!

Except... Dave didn't actually make his millions for himself, by himself.

Very funny and true though

"Labour MP John Robertson has written to David Cameron and the Cabinet Secretary, Gus O'Donnell, expressing "grave doubts" about whether Mr Grayling had adhered to the ministerial code when he announced the successful bidders for the Work Programme scheme.

One of the biggest winners, Ingeus Deloitte, is part-owned by the accounting and consulting firm Deloitte, which donated £27,978 in kind to Mr Grayling through a staff secondment to his office in 2009

The Department of Work and Pensions said no money had changed hands but Deloitte had provided Mr Grayling with the services of one of its management consultants when he was in opposition, and paid the staff member themselves.

Last year Deloitte analysts predicted that third-party suppliers would make up 44 per cent of total Government spending on the public sector by 2014/15 and identified "significant opportunities coming to market" thanks to "the shift to the Big Society"

ww.channel4.com/news/grayling-turns-spotlight-back-on-to-fit-to-work-claimants

Even the Spectator says re: Workfare, "we cannot justify slave labour in a civilised society."

The full list of mandatory work activity providers, broken down by contract package area is as follows;

South east

A4e

CPA2

South west

Rehab Group

CPA3

London

Seetec

CPA4

East of England

Seetec

CPA5

East Midlands

Ingeus

CPA6

West Midlands

ESG

CPA7

North west

JHP Group

CPA8

Yorkshire and Humber

BEST

CPA9

North east

Ingeus

CPA10

Scotland

JHP Group

CPA11

Wales

Rehab Group

Is it worth looking into the companies they are all engaged in implementing forced labour.

www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201212/cmhansrd/cm120117/text/120117w0001.htm

When I worked nights at Tesco we had an influx of new staff.

They were all Polish and Tesco had actually paid for them to come over to the UK, subsidised their rent and bills and paid them the full wage. I don't have a problem with this. Clearly they could afford to do this.

What I did wonder was why they were having so much trouble getting staff from the UK to work?

And now they're clearly getting their money back with this new scheme. The idea was good, to get people back into work after a long absence, having something to put on your CV and getting used to routines and socialising again, but to not pay a full wage is taking the piss.

I'd love to hear from someone who is taking part in workfare.

Boomerwang, I'm too tired to research this for you but my guess is Tesco was getting a grant to supporti the Polish workers. It doesn't do things out of the goodness of its heart (has shareholders to answer to, you know, and all those huge directors' wages to pay.) If it was spending its own money to get enough night-shift workers, it could have spent it on local people, no?

There are stories here, all over the press and some on this very thread.

Wow!

Quote:
www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/feb/19/observer-letters-welfare-reform?newsfeed=true

"Maria Miller must go now

We, the undersigned, have no confidence in Maria Miller's abilities as minister for disabled people. We believe that she should resign from her position for the following reasons.

She has failed to fight hard enough to ensure that disabled people receive a fairer assessment of their capabilities and she appears ignorant of how the proposed cuts to legal aid and closure of Citizens' Advice Bureaux will limit access to justice and advice for thousands of disability living allowance recipients.

She disregards experts who have made it clear that the work capability assessment in its current form is not fit for purpose. She also defends not only the changes from incapacity benefit to employment and support allowance that have led to many people being wrongly assessed and some terminally ill people being passed fit to work, but also the proposed change from disability living allowance to personal independence payments, which will take away the benefit from many needy people.

She has announced that the independent living fund will be closed down in 2015 and failed to consult with severely disabled people who use it. She is also responsible for introducing the plan to charge lone parents to access the service that will replace the Child Support Agency, when organisations such as Gingerbread have opposed the idea because of its damaging effect.

Furthermore, she failed to take a sufficiently strong public stand to protect disabled people from disability-based discrimination, prejudice and hatred. She misled the public by claiming that there is not a shortage of jobs but a fear of work. And she supports Workfare...."

molepom - I didnt want to drag the thread off to talk about tax credits but I fully accept what you and others say about tax credits being essential to those that receive them. I also agree with IDoNotLIKEFun who said that it should not be necessary to have tax credits and it was an economically stupid idea brought in by Labour. The Coalition do not have a monopoly on stupid ideas.

My view is that tax credits are just another subsidy to employers because it allows them to pay lower wages than they otherwise would have to. The solution is to remove tax credits and Workfare, rigorously enforce minimum wage so employees are protected against exploitation. Finally and most importantly, take everyone on minimum wage completely out of the tax system. My suggestion is not intended to make people who are working worse off - quite the opposite. My suggestion is to ensure that employers pay the full cost of employing people.

I also saw the extract from the DWP website about people having benefits stopped if they do voluntary work unless it is part of a Govt scheme. Yes I knew about that as I used to volunteer for a charity alongside people on JSA who were there as part of another 'training scheme'. It is completely illogical to stop someone finding their own work experience in an industry relevant to their degree/skills while collecting JSA but still force them to go and work for a retailer stacking shelves.

I am so angry about this - I cannot believe Chris Grayling is trying to defend it. If anyone in Conservative or LibDem central office is reading this take note. I am not a frothing leftie, I pay a lot of tax, I voted for you. You are wrong on this. Don't let this turn into a 'Poll Tax' arguement. Firms are making money on the back of workers forced to work for nothing and taking my hard earned taxes to bolster their profits. I disagree with this as much as I disagree with bailing out banks while they still pay out huge bonuses to senior staff. Why don't you understand that the vast bulk of the population can see this is grossly unfair?

Well said MoreBeta, agree with every word.

Although I think of myself as being more of the left than the right :)

sorry if I got my facts wrong garlicfrother this is the information I was given by one of the workers themselves. I guess they aren't told the ins and outs either!

quite right Beta.

Here's the thing, whether you are in favour of high taxes or low taxes in general, I think we are all agreed that we are NOT in favour of what taxes the government does collect being used to subsidise big business who are already making big profits.

A4E are being investigated for fraud, these are the people cameron and co have put their faith in to fight joblessness. The same company that has been paid millions of pounds of tax payers money.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103252/Back-work-tsar-centre-fraud-probe-claims-funding-went-jobs-lasting-just-day.html

I am going to work my way through the list of companies contracted by this government. I feel that rather than providing value for money services and making savings, the money that is cut from the welfare bill will simply be poured into their coffers.

A don't believe the government is cutting welfare to cut the deficit, they have simply found another way to make their chums rich at the expense of tax payers and societies most vulnerable people.

Lots of people have seen through the nastiness that is A4e minimathsmouse. Take a look at Emma Harrison (A4e owner) the UK's biggest benefit cheat and A4e photo gallery.

Every penny of Emma's business profits comes from government contracts which it regularly underperforms on, and which have put Emma onto the Sunday Times rich list.

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/the-work-programme.pdf

DWP "The work Programme"

This lists the payment tariff for the work these companies undertake but I think that might only be a small amount of the money they actually receive.

I wonder if the CEOs of these companies or their parent companies make party donations?

Thank you Banditqueen

The lovely Emma has a FB page www.facebook.com/emmaharrisonofficial?ref=ts

NIL Remember the link to the House of Lords report you wanted sending to ShivMalik?

He's responded to my tweet with the link, saying "that's very helpful, thank you".

Has Mr Milibean not said anything against this yet?

We aim to please!

Lovely link there with Work Programme stuff.

And here's one I prepared earlier:a DWP report on Pathways to Work, the previous incarnation of the Work Programme, discussing some of the problems of the scheme.

pp3-4 in particular talk about the problem of prime providers taking money for people who didn't need much input and dumping needier people onto subcontractors.

And oh look, here they are still doing it with the Work Programme. The charities are being used as "bid candy", to make the primes look good.

(Btw, can't find it now but I've seen plans for NHS restructuring discussed in identical terms: lotsa loot for big commercial players while perhaps charities "would like" to take on difficult diseases and poor areas.)

"A don't believe the government is cutting welfare to cut the deficit, they have simply found another way to make their chums rich at the expense of tax payers and societies most vulnerable people."

Exactly that.

Dean James, CEO Ingeus UK
With extensive experience in both the commercial and public sectors, Dean is responsible for driving Ingeus? strategic growth objectives as well as overseeing the continued effective performance of our existing contracts in the UK. Joining Ingeus in June 2010, Dean was formerly Chief Operating Officer for the Corporate IT Directorate of the Department for Work and Pensions

Oooh!

Back to A4e for a moment, a few days ago they were ripped up by Margaret Hodge in the Public Accounts Committee for creaming off lots of money and being crap.

DH works for a private hospital that has been awarded NHS contracts. This firm is a private equity firm, as is Ingeus.

They have:

Cut there staff to worryingly low levels, so much so that they only offer overtime to staff when the CQC visit.

They have laid staff off often for very dubious reasons,in short they are asset stripping and offering poor quality care and adding to unemployment and we are paying for this.

NHS money straight into the hands of Investors.

Welfare money straight into the hands of investors

God, mini.

Can DH bide his time and collect evidence? Copies of staff rosters showing staffing levels, etc? Write a diary?

If necessary talk to the Beeb or a newspaper first, to check his legal position (as Leveson's made clear, many otherwise dodgy activities are covered by public interest - but it's easier to provide a public interest defence if you've created a paper trail as you go.)

I can understand he won't want to whistleblow while working there, but one day he'll leave or a scandal will blow up - and then he could have the documentation ready.

mini
get him to contact Phil Hammond alias "MD" at Private EYE
they will give him TOTAL confidentiality and check out other hospitals too

bear in mind Private Eye started on this issue over a year ago ....

Thank you TalkinPeace and Nilgiri, I will try and talk to DH about it again. He's a bright but lazy one and up until now not keen to do anything.

I've just read that two other workfare (jobs companies) providers are being investigated for fraud but can't find out which ones. So the problem doesn't stop at A4E

By the way, if your DH needs to time-stamp anything - to prove he was planning this or acquired documents at a certain date - he can send himself an email with a brief note in. The email time-stamps it.

I imagine you could do the same with a Word document that tracks changes.