To think these stewards at the pageant should have been treated better

[enimmead]

www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/04/jubilee-pageant-unemployed

"A group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.

Up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages were taken to London by coach from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth as part of the government's Work Programme.

Two jobseekers, who did not want to be identified in case they lost their benefits, said they had to camp under London Bridge the night before the pageant. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday."

Ok - so it's the Guardian but it seems these people were bussed in as part of the new deal programme to get work experience, had to camp out.

"Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London. A spokesman said the unpaid work was a trial for paid roles at the Olympics, which it had also won a contract to staff. Unpaid staff were expected to work two days out of the three-day holiday.

The firm said it had spent considerable resources on training and equipment that stewards could keep and that the experience was voluntary and did not affect jobseekers keeping their benefits.

The woman said that people were picked up at Bristol at 11pm on Saturday and arrived in London at 3am on Sunday. "We all got off the coach and we were stranded on the side of the road for 20 minutes until they came back and told us all to follow them," she said. "We followed them under London Bridge and that's where they told us to camp out for the night ? It was raining and freezing."

A 30-year-old steward told the Guardian that the conditions under the bridge were "cold and wet and we were told to get our head down [to sleep]". He said that it was impossible to pitch a tent because of the concrete floor."

Maybe they had to wait under the bridge after the long coach trip but it does not sound very good.

They are law. There exemptions and opt outs but they are definitely law, not just for decoration....

I don't see that they would have the 30 volunteers doing 14 hours and everyone else doing 8 hours. It doesn't make any sense.

I wonder if they counted the hours travelling. I know that if I have to work st a different site I turn up to my regular work, and they will organise a cab there and back within my shift time

"Im sure some of the olympic stewards will complain about their experience when the time comes. Just depends on how the media want to twist the story whether anything is said of it."
Poulay going by this it says to me that you know just as well as the rest of us do that workfare is going to be used at the Olympics, but you are just making the excuses early.
What pisses me off is the huge double standard sometimes shown here when its a story of benefit "fraud" or "scrounging" that appears in the papers.
I bet you wouldnt say that the media are twisting the story in those "cases".

No I don't know that workfare is going to be used at the Olympics.

I know that they are using volunteers, many of whom are retired/wealthy/housewife types. Doubtless still some will complain.

www.london2012.com/about-us/volunteers/

I know someone who is going to be an unpaid steward at the Olympics, he's a senior nurse, he's doing it just to be part of it and has been on training sessions. So unpaid volunteer at the olympics doesn't necessarily mean workfare.