My response to http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/christina-patterson/christina-patterson-if-you-want-a-job-slave-labour-at-tesco-isnt-a-bad-place-to-start-7280033.html.
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As someone who has participated in the 8-week volunteer scheme, and got a Christmas temp job as a result of it, I feel qualified in commenting.
There seems to be a misconception that to do 'unskilled' labour
means easy labour. In my experience it is not. Retail is often monotonous and repetitious, mentally draining and
depending on the intensity of work, physically tiring.
Firstly, I've worked in retail in a number of stores and companies. It is a labour intensive, underpaid and stagnant environment with little social or mental stimulation. There is little job satisfaction to be gained, and less to be happy about, especially when you have to pretend that you are until your shift is over.
Secondly, whilst the scheme itself is a good idea in THEORY, I question why the government has chosen to restrict the division of labour available from the unemployed to only big companies. It makes much more economical sense to give free work experience placements to smaller companies that could use the extra man-power during this harsh economic time. It would be simple enough to have an open register of companies who could open their doors to a free work placement within each local constituency. Then those on JSA, like myself, can state their preferred entry of work experience. This gives people GENUINE work experience needed to pursue their chosen career paths. The JobCentre already has a database of jobs available, how hard can it be to set one up for placements for these projects?
Tesco, TK Maxx et al do NOT need the extra help. They CAN afford to pay for staff. My local butcher, however, looks like he could use a hand or two.
Also, I'd like to add that my experience of this scheme and from dozens of others whom I've talked to that have taken part in them has resulted in the following: 8 [or however many] weeks' free labour with the promise of a CHANCE of work at the end. Usually there is no work to be had, and if there is, it's for a short period of time, such as Christmas temp work.
Thirdly, the placements are part-time so as not to conflict with the government's estimated time that they want the jobless to spend seeking work. Essentially the government treat looking for work as a part time job in itself. THAT is what JSA is for as stated in the job seeker's agreement: to search for work, not for working for free. However, according to my job seeker's agreement, I was not allowed to refuse the work if offered it.
After tax I earned four hundred and eight pounds whilst working an average of twenty two hours per week for four weeks. This was more than the JobCentre thought I should earn and as a result they stopped paying me JSA, AND the local council stopped all benefit for me and my partner, who is in part-time education.
Our rent is £400/month (the lower end of what you can expect to pay on rent these days). Use some fairly simple maths, can you figure out how much money we had left to live on?
In summary of my point, the amount of time I put in with the payout later was not worth it. In fact it put us in a worse situation then we were before.
Fourthly, "They say that the free labour that Tesco may have got might be worth as much as £1,500" - Is that per person? If so, that is above the NMW you can expect working full time hours, so the money Tesco SAVED was £1,500 per person. That's quite a lot of money. Or is that in total? In that case they hired less than 10 people, if you take into account that JSA is £200 a month.
Fifth, I'd like to point you to the Oxford English Dictionary for the definition of slaves: http://oxforddictionaries.com/...
Yeah. That's all of us. Including you Christina Patterson. Either you work/earn money or you die.
I'd also like to add that throwing the word Nazi around to make a point is very unbecoming and childish of a professional writer. I'd be careful if I were you and flex your vocabulary more, lest you wish to learn what these work experience schemes are like firsthand.
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