Tesco's secret workfare
Furious shoppers are threatening to boycott Tesco after their use of forced labour schemes came to light yesterday.
An advert on the Jobcentre Plus website is calling for night-shift workers who will be expected to work for just Jobseekers Allowance (paid by the Government, not Tesco, at a rate of £53.45 per week for under 25s) plus expenses. The position is advertised as permanent.
Tesco have claimed the role is not permanent and that this was a mistake which they have asked the DWP to remove from their website. So far it is still there.
Tesco, who seem unnerved about the extent of their involvement with forced labour being revealed to customers, have today gone on the offensive. Tesco claim that over 300 people have been given permanent positions with the firm since they began using free workers and that they are 'giving young people valuable experience of the workplace'. That Tesco are attempting to claim this is some kind of charitable gesture just shows that they think their customers are fucking stupid.
This is the company that rips off suppliers, workers and customers alike. The company whose aggressive expansion policy has ripped the heart out of communities resulting in over 450 local campaigns against them according to Tescopoly. Tesco ensure any local resistance to their presence is bulldozed away, sometimes literally, as in the destruction of popular local beauty spot Titnore Woods.
So let's not pretend Tesco are in the midst of some grand humanitarian crusade. Tesco don't do ethics, they do profit. Should that change their shareholders might well have something to say about it.
If Tesco had 300 positions available for young people then why didn't they recruit through the usual channels, without forcing them to work for free first. And despite the firms promise of a 'guaranteed interview' (big fucking deal), Tesco have forcibly recruited 1,400 people onto workfare since they started using the scheme. So barely 1 in five of them was finally offered a no doubt minimum wage job at the end of it. Are these the only young people Tesco have recruited in that time? Perhaps they'd like to tell us.
Previous workfare schemes have failed because providers have been unable to find enough placements for claimants bullied onto them by the DWP. This has led to thousands of young people being forced to sit around for 30 hours in the office's of poverty pimps like A4e, or face losing all benefits. With Tesco finally getting involved (along with other major employers including McDonalds and ASDA), it is possible that economy of scale may have finally resulted in corporate sharks working out how to make a profit from it.
That Tesco (and ASDA) are forcing workers to work nights, for which they would usually pay their paid employers a premium, shows that what counts here is the bottom line. There's money to be made from these workfare schemes. Of course that means they will take on less paid staff than they would have done, and as an added bonus it can be used to put pressure on wages and conditions for all staff.
The most cynical predictions about Workfare, that it will lead to higher unemployment and lower wages, appear to be coming true. Forcing young people to work nights is particularly vile, especially as the health risks to night time workers is now well documented. It also reveals that this scheme has nothing to do with helping young people find work, leaving them little time for job hunting if they are knackered from doing a night shift.
The weasel words from Tesco's marketing department will do little to dampen the outrage. Already on their facebook page they can't delete comments fast enough from furious customers whilst on Twitter the #boycotttesco and #tescogate hashtags are taking off. Tesco customer services can be contacted (for free) on: 0800 505 555.
Sainsbury's, Waterstones and allegedly Superdrug have all announced they will no longer be taking part in workfare. With the 3rd of March called as a National Day of Action Against Workfare then this abandonment of the government's flagship scheme is sure to spread. If workfare is now profitable then direct action, boycotts, pickets and demonstrations outside stores will at the very least help to make it less profitable.
It's a sad and crazy world when Tesco can claim they are helping young people by forcing them to stack shelves all night for no pay. With the recent announcement that boss of workfare provider A4e paid herself £9 million of tax payer's money last year, supermarkets getting night shift workers for free at the tax payer's expense and even charities clamouring to pick up lucrative 'Work Programme' contracts it seems that the benefits system is indeed a gravy train. Unless of course you happen to be a benefit claimant.
From http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/tescos-secret-workfare-slaves/
Jonny Void
UK against austerity
Report on supermarket pay from Paul Mason
T La Palli
Is there firm evidence Asda and McDonald's are taking part? I was at a meeting last month and there seemed a lot of uncertainty around which companies were involved. If some companies are also pulling out, have any of the big charities also done so?
snipfool
T La Palli wrote:
there is this list which incluces the two you mention, but i can't vouch for its accuracy. as you can see, oxfam and shelter have supposedly pulled out.
taylor40plus
These companies are just taking the pissss out off people who cannot genuinely get work, scroungers are a different story as they would prefer to sit on the fat lazy lard asssses, to think also that the government pay Tesco to pay the person, Tesco cannot lose, money from the government, free slave labour, and bin the poor sod at the end off the four week trail thing, every little helper helps, that should be their new motto, greedy bastardsssss, the UK is so fked up, Politian have ruin the country, come and live the dream at Tesco, be a valued employer at Tesco, we give you the option to claim the ladder in Tesco, yeah to stack fking food on the top shelves, to be honest, UK as nothing going for it now, skint, the UK as the prospects off a C5 Sinclair motorbike,
shug
scroungers are a different story as they would prefer to sit on the fat lazy lard asssses
WTF??????
TLP, A4E told the Public accounts Committee on 8th Feb that they have specific national contracts as "master vendor" (!) with Asda, Royal Mail, Tussauds, Greggs, and WH Smith - though there was no suggestion this was an exhaustive list.
And a wee correction to the article, Emma Harrison apparently didn't get £9 million last year. As major shareholder (87%) the poor woman only got £6,264,000. Maybe she'll be able to claim working Tax Credit.
Cheers shug. So Need to know which Stores etc locally are Talking Part. It's really shit royal mail are taking part.
Interesting development here, while several big names like Sainsbury's and TK Maxx have said they are pulling out of the scheme, Tesco is staying in but has apparently asked the government to make it voluntary, and remove the threat of benefit withdrawal if people don't comply:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/18/tesco-jobless-scheme-work-experience
presumably this is because they have made the calculation that there will be enough desperate unemployed people who will voluntarily work for nothing, which means they will still get plenty of taxpayer funded free labour, while not getting the bad press. And will even be able to claim that they are trying to help people get back into the workforce.
Hopefully of course nobody will be that desperate. And also I can't really see the government going back on the whole point of their workfare scheme, which is to make it compulsory
martinh
Heard on the news that Matalan just pulled out. Here's to more doing so soon
Caiman del Barrio
martinh wrote:
Yep! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17086526
Tesco are now promising they will give people a paid work placement afterwards, with a guaranteed job at the end if they pass…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/9095678/Tesco-offers-to-pay-work-experience-candidates-and-give-them-job.html
Ellar
Tesco will give them a job "if they do well". I doubt Tesco will judge many of them as having done well enough.