DS1-19 (my stepson who I raised) has had a rough time over the last several years but really wants to get back on track after making some serious mistakes during his adolescence. He is not an academic person and left secondary school without good qualifications, however, was halfway through a level 3 course in Health and Fitness when he got derailed with some legal problems and spent some time in jail. In jail, he had got a prison job and kept his nose clean and behaved impeccably. He is now out and doing everything under the sun to comply with all requirements and make a fresh start towards a legal and successful life.
He spent two weeks looking for a job at the local Job Centre when he was offered an interview at a fairly local Aggregate Company. The job was to be 'erecting fence panels'. He eagerly accepted the job and they told him he needed to start the next day but needed a hardhat, steel-toed boots and a high-visibility jacket. They promised him that this was a proper full-time job and he was looking to getting great work experience, staying awhile to build up his CV and possible make a career for himself in this line of work.
DH and I took him straight to B&Q and furnished him with the requisite supplies as well as some work gloves and overalls. His bicycle was not great either so we bought him a bike as well as it is a 5-mile bike ride to the job, which started at 7am each weekday morning.
He was so happy to be working and told us that his first job there was cleaning up the wreckage from a fire the company had experienced and that he also got to erect put some fence panels together and deliver them with one of the older workmen. I am sure he worked hard and well.
Well, he got there this morning and they told him that now that the wreckage from the fire had been cleared up, they no longer needed him and let him go (along with another young man they had hired at the same time). He is, of course, upset. The work had been tiring, hard and dirty but he loved being a working man and was looking forward to earning a regular income.
I feel like the Job Centre and the company misrepresented the job. Did the company misuse the Job Centre in being a conduit for temporary casual labour? If not, shouldn't the information that it was casual, temporary labour have been disclosed? Also, we were able to buy the required items DS needed to do the work, but how fair is it to insist someone buys these supplies for four days work? How is anyone less advantaged than he is supposed to be able to get into the workforce? I am sooooo annoyed and feel so badly for DS. Arrrggghhh!