I STILL think Tesco should fucking well PAY THEIR STAFF. Workfare is wrong!!!!

[TapselteerieO]

Still angry, I hope the protests on the 3rd of March all over the country really keep this campaign lit, it makes me furious to think people seem to assume it has been sorted.

I will boycott every company that uses schemes like this until they are ended completely.

mini

That's fab, that statement.

That's what we need, more like that. Let's have our 'Big Society' and show DC & Co that WE are all in this together.

I've just realised that Guardian article means broke, unemployed & inexperienced people are being sent into people's homes and workplaces without references and, presumably, with little supervision.

Interesting!

Yep, garlic, you're right !

Yes next it'll be no CRB checks for people doing home care and looking after children.

Just phoned Five Live to tell them that the Tesco offer isnt as good as it seems
They said they MIGHT phone back but its unlikely as i was on air last Sunday night. Fingers crossed.

mine too X

Didnt ring me back but someone from Tesco did phone in to try and do a bit of damage limitation. Well Tesco people arent that stupid.

You guys have probably seen this already, right?

Jobseekers forced to clean private homes and offices for nothing

Concern over unpaid workers taking overtime from staff as some placements last more than a month

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/24/jobseekers-unpaid-work-placements

Sorry that should have read Well Tesco, (comma) people arent that stupid.

Wonder if any of those offices or homes belong to councillors or MPs

I hope so! And I hope they have the nous to steal compromising documents while they're there

I certainly would Garlic. And i would take them straight to the Guardian.

This Government isn't bothered about the details, which happen to be human lives, they are only interested in their big picture. Following their logic, I think they would find reintroducing workhouses really would be a neat solution - with the added twist that they could be privately run, so that at least one person can make a profit out of them (sorry, I mean, at most...). People in over-large accommodation funded by the State could be removed to a specially built (by private finance) workhouse; they could be stopped from producing more children by separating the men and women; the children could be separated from their parents, because of course to have ended up in that situation they will be assumed to be a bad influence on their children, anyway; they could be given lots of work to do, which of course is much better than sitting around. Anyone incapable of paying their way entirely independently could live in a workhouse and be required to do whatever work the private owners of those workhouses devise, including working for other profit making companies, for nothing. And childcare and other issues would be sorted, because these people would no longer have responsibility for looking after their children. Nor would they have to care for their disabled and sick relatives, either - they would be in another section of the workhouse, looked after by workhouse inmates to whom they are not related, because building too much of a bond creates inefficiency in the workforce and drags everyone down to the level of the weak.

If I am ever forced to do Workfare - I will wear a wire, and a hidden camera, and I will publish the evidence.

I will happily take a part-time retail job in two years time when I only have to pay childcare for two of my dc, but it will have to be 16 hours a week - I can't PHYSICALLY manage more than 4 hrs a day, due to my disability and my caring responsibilities. So 4hrs a day over 4 days would be great!!

I CAN'T manage 24 hrs a week, so I will probably be made to do Workfare in the end - but I hope the DWP realise that I WILL publish my evidence.

And as for the people on Welfare-to-work schemes being mandated in order to circumvent the NMW laws - that means that it IS forced labour - and I would ALSO be using my evidence to mount a legal challenge. There MUST be solicitors out there who would take the case on pro-bono, even if legal aid no longer exists.

Be wary, DWP. If you mandate ME to do Workfare, I WILL whistleblow. I will NOT sign ANY gagging orders, and either you class me as an 'employee' that is paid by the DWP, in which case, as an employee of a public body, I am protected by the 'whistleblowing' regulations, OR, I am NOT an employee of anybody, in which case, I cannot be forced, or mandated to do work for a private company, to increase their profits whilst not being paid the going rate (of at least NMW). Either way, I WILL get the information out there!

Rabbitstew - Magdalen laundries, anyone?

Govt. caught removing the word 'mandatory' from DWP documents:

Well yesterday?s revelation that the DWP seem to have been altering documents on their website to cover for Chris Grayling and Iain Duncan Smith?s lies seems to hold weight.

johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/the-case-of-the-disappearing-workfare-documents/

I have a very nasty feeling that they are going to issue gagging orders on benefit claimants
like this "If you tell the press or any member of the public that you are working for benefits either for an 8 week placement or a 6 month one we will sanction you and stop your benefit"
They will NOT be stopping the mandatory element to these schemes.
They will gag the claimants instead or try to and then just keep on telling the public that the schemes are voluntary.
I bet this is what theyve got planned after removing those documents.

Has anybody got a copy of the original chapter 3, I know there are copies from google cache but the original would be better. Kicking myself, I have chapter 2 but not 3

peekabooby, at the moment it's still on the DWP website if your looking for the "missing statement"

www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wp-pg-chapter-3.pdf

I would copy it.

For anyone wondering chapter 3 is about the compulsory nature of the Work programme (workfare)

"Where you are providing support for JSA participants, which is work
experience you must mandate participants to this activity. This is to avoid
the National Minimum Wage Regulations, which will apply if JSA claimants are not mandated"

So there you have it, a full black and white admission that the government is feeding people to these companies to be used as forced labour paid less that NMW.

They are now trying to cover it up because they have broken the law and well they know it.

That statement isn't in the version on DWP now though?
Where you are providing support for JSA participants, which is work
experience you must mandate participants to this activity. This is to avoid
the National Minimum Wage Regulations, which will apply if JSA claimants are not mandated"

I thought someone might have the original doc saved rather than just in google cache.

OMFG Look what A4e did to this woman.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/exclusive-a4e-and-a-200m-backtowork-scandal-7440966.html

It's all coming out now !

Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey...

I am loving watching everything crumble around DC and co. Can we start thinking about a street party the day they leave office ?

I wouldn't be in the mood for a street party - the country would still be in a mess and what would replace them?

Hopefully someone who understands that private enterprises do not automatically do a better job than public ones; nor are they cheaper for the State, even when the State turns a blind eye to their corruption by not overseeing anything they do in the hope not checking up on them will save money. Private enterprises do make a huge profit for a small minority of people, though, who then complain about paying tax and take their money out of the country to avoid it - entirely unacceptable when virtually all their money comes from the State's purse.