To wonder how g4s couldn't recruit enough security guards who speak fluent English?

[rhondajean]

In this economy?

How big a fuck up is this.

Having worked in recruitment, this looks like the tender from hell. Eight thousand vacancies to fill at minimum wage, all to be CRB checked and trained and accredited, all to be confirmed four months in advance... for a two week job. Hahahahaha. That was never going to happen. Never.

Anyone who would accept that job would either be a student looking for something to do over the summer holidays, someone very, very desperate indeed or someone completely unemployable. And I fully second Jumping's point about immigrant workers turning up on time, working hard and getting on with these kinds of jobs, while Brits arrive when they feel like it, miss half the training, drop out after one session or don't turn up at all, mess around, cause trouble... Massive generalisation but that was the way it was 4 years ago and I can't imagine it's changed much now.

Akmd I am going to apologise I now feel I worded the op badly.

There is something far wrong though I'd we couldn't do this as a country.

And part of it based on my own experience of helping people with short term work is the benefits system which responds to change at the speed of a crippled snail.

Also I suppose we can't really compare this to Sydney or Beijing - Sydney doesn't have the same security worries that we do and Beijing would have no trouble summoning up any number of 'willing' workers. These are different times that we live in - but I agree with AKMD - this was never going to work. How could anyone recruit so far in advance and have any confidence at all that they would all turn up. Impossible.

Immigrants are not 'all the same' you know...there are some lazy workshy fuckers amongst them...just the same as Brits are not all the same and there are some lazy workshy fuckers amongst them too.

The point here is, the fact it takes so long to check everyone's history for security purposes...then CRB them....then train them up for a CIS licence.

Those who were claiming JSA around here couldn't just go on a CIS course for free without having to first take 4 other week long courses...in such things as team leading, retail something or other and a couple of others. It was like a carrot on a stick...if they passed the first 4 courses they could then take the CIS.

None of this was done in time basically.

SIA!! Not CIS Lol

I have yet to read a perfectly worded OP :o

YANBU though I think. G4S should have known that it was an impossible contract and should definitely have subcontracted as much as they possibly could. With the benefit of hindsight, it looks like the management at G4S wanted a high profile tender without consisering the actual realities of delivering it, then they got greedy and refused to subcontract and it's all gone to pot, just as the administrators on the front line would have known it would.

Apparently they were offering zero hour contracts - so not guaranteeing applicants any amount of work. Could be 3 weeks fulltime, could be one shift.

Who exactly is able to take a job like that? Maybe students. Maybe pensioners. Maybe nearly arrived immigrants who don't qualify for benefits. Certainly nobody claiming JSA could afford to take a gamble on signing off for such uncertainty.

And just wait for the aftermath too when the poor fuckers on benefits who have got a few weeks work, will have their money stuffed right up after the Olympics ends.

I can foresee months of form filling and lost claims with the job centres too.

Worra of course they aren't all the same but in my general experience of working in low-level recruitment, immigrants, especially from Eastern Europe, have very different expectations to the 'locals' of how hard they need to work to make it in the UK. The people I worked with from Poland, Lithuania etc. were well-educated and eager and fully expected to start from the bottom and work their way up as their English and UK work experience improved, whereas the Brits generally couldn't see the point of working a night shift in a warehouse for minimum wage and preferred to stay on JSA. Completely different work ethics.

I believe rubirosa is right, they were zero hour contracts.

From my experience I can second akmd.

I would add the caveat that the people I met and worked with dame here because they wanted to work. They were usually very highly educated but a few years back could earn more in basic jobs here eg health care assistant for a highly trained nurse.

I wouldn't use them to comment on a comparison between uk,and say Poland, just to say the experience I has of the majority of immigrants in sw Scotland.

I didn't start this thread for a fight about immigrants and I'm glad the way it's gone so far, people are making good and valid points so thank you all.

AKMD there is also the fact that many immigrants will come here without their wives and children...rent cheap accomodation along with say 5 or 6 other adults to keep the costs down...then send their wages back home where it is worth far more than it is in the UK.

Hence the real reason many employers prefer them because they're grateful to work for peanuts.

However, in the case of the whole G4S fiasco, many willing would be workers...both foreign and British can't get a job for love nor money because of the shambles they call their recruitment process.

When the first wave of Polish workers came over I was in a position to be employing staff within the leisure sector. Crap conditions, crap pay, crap hours (for all of us!) - they came over and gladly took the jobs that the English wouldn't be arsed with, they worked hard, they learned the language and they were a Godsend. I won't hear a word said against the Eastern European workforce.

True, but the majority in my contracts had their wives and children with them and had nicer houses than me

Anyway, this is wandering far from the topic! I think it comes down to G4S having eyes bigger than its stomach.

Well none of it bloody matters if G4S can't get their arses into gear.

British, EE, African or Alien...no fucker can get a job if the CRB and security checks are taking longer than necessary for the whole thing to actually work.

Errr hang on a minute. What about the stewards who worked for free at the jubilee on the promise of getting a PAID job at the Olympics.
What has happened to that "promise" then?!!

BF is store manager working for a company that needs people to have a 10 year checkable history, They do not have a single member of staff who does not speak perfect English, every single member of staff has been here at least ten years, the reason being is it is almost impossible to check the work history of people from other countries, especially places riddled in corruption like Africa.

G4S don't care who they are employing they just see them as stewards/crowd control not security.

' locals CBA to haul their sorry arses out for an interview.'

I am job hunting right now. I confess that I didn't apply for a security job at the Olympics. I couldn't afford to take a month off the part time job I have atm to commute 500miles for a nil hours contract that would pay NMW when I did work. Does that really make me workshy? Really?

Quite frankly I will work any hours but I am still human so can't work a job that commute would extend to more than 24hrs a day. I will take a job that will make me worse off but not one that makes me so much worse off that it costs me more to work than I earn. My children deserve to be able to eat, they are not to blame for my failure. Put that in your pipe and smoke it jumping. Judgemental much!

agree with scroungin. why on earth would anyone outside the London commuter area touch this work with a bargepole, they would almost certainly end up out of pocket. And even within the London area, people are hardly going to jump for joy at a zero hours contact for a fortnight.

Out of interest, how much does the SIA course cost?

DH is a qualified security officer, SIA licenced, he has lots of site, venue and airport security experience. He interviewed with G4S back in February, and was given a position as a supervisor on one of the xray teams.
They never called him in to work. They did all his security and credit checks, no problem, repeatedly assured him he did have a job. In April he rang their payroll people to find out what was going on, as he was waiting for confirmation to hand in his notice at his existing job. He was told the HR was outsourced and they were taking ages.
He still hasn't heard back. During the olympics he will be working in retail and on doors.
I know at least one other SIA licenced security officer who was told he had a job by G4S then never followed up, DH knows a few more.
It's not that qualified people didn't apply, their applications were so badly processed that they gave up and found other work.