No, I don't think Tesco is using Workfare to replace permanent jobs. Tesco is abusing the system to get free labour when it suits eg over Christmas (when they'd normally have to pay temporary workers) with no intention of providing permanent employment. Weasel words. I can't believe they are still too cocky to withdraw from the scheme. Like most people on this thread, I'll be shopping at Sainsburys this week.
At the risk of becoming a troll, I've just sent this email to Chris Grayling because that Torygraph article made me so angry. It is quite insulting, but then he is insulting tens of thousands of people and he needs to realise this:
Dear Mr Grayling
I read the article in the Telegraph newspaper that quoted your views on the Workfare programme with great interest (through a link from the Mumsnet website).
The part I found most interesting was your statement about Sir Terry Leahy. You alleged that because Sir Leahy has, in the past, stacked shelves and mopped floors for Tesco, there should be no complaints from either people forced to provide unpaid labour for Tesco or the general public about the Workfare scheme. You referred to these complaints as "job snobbery".
I find it insulting and patronising that you would make the comparison with what Sir Leahy has done. His work was carried out during his school holidays decades ago. More pertinently, he was paid for this work. You, for some reason, think young jobseekers should work for free. Given that many of the Tesco jobs advertised were for menial jobs, were three or four weeks in duration and were over the Christmas period and that Tesco did not advertise for temporary seasonal staff as it normally would, the only conclusion is that these young people were being taken advantage of and used as free labour. The guaranteed job interview at the end of the placement was just salt in the wound. There were no real jobs to offer.
As a government minister, you must always check the veracity of what you say. Your comments were indefensibly misleading and I think you should be embarrassed at how easily your propaganda (that is the only word that fits) can be disproven and dismissed by simply checking the facts.
It would be far too optimistic of me to expect you to change and for you to consider using the truth instead of mindlessly reciting your bigoted Party line, but I would be interested in receiving an explanation as to why you were so blatantly inaccurate; whether this was a genuine mistake (although this would make you foolish) or whether you were intentionally deceitful (which is worse).
I hope to receive an answer.