Tesco’s Secret Workfare Slaves
riotact | 16.02.2012 17:05 | Workfare | Public sector cuts | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements
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 (1) is calling for night-shift workers who will 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 (2). 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 (3). Tesco ensure any local resistance to their presence is bulldozed away, sometimes literally, as in the destruction of popular local beauty spot Titnore Woods (4).
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 (5) 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 (6). 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 (7) 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 (8) then this abandonment of the government’s flagship scheme 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 (9), 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.
(1)
http://jobcentreplus.jobhits.co.uk/TESCO-NIGHT-SHIFT-id-BSD-27442
(2) http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/02/post-2.html
(3) http://www.tescopoly.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=213&Itemid=103
(4) http://www.protectourwoodland.co.uk/
(5) http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=306
(6) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1092390.stm
(7) http://www.facebook.com/tesco#!/tesco?sk=wall&filter=1
(8) http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=359
(9) http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/emma-harrison-the-uks-biggest-benefit-cheat/
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 (2). 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 (3). Tesco ensure any local resistance to their presence is bulldozed away, sometimes literally, as in the destruction of popular local beauty spot Titnore Woods (4).
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 (5) 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 (6). 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 (7) 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 (8) then this abandonment of the government’s flagship scheme 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 (9), 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.
(1)
http://jobcentreplus.jobhits.co.uk/TESCO-NIGHT-SHIFT-id-BSD-27442 (2)
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/02/post-2.html (3)
http://www.tescopoly.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=213&Itemid=103 (4)
http://www.protectourwoodland.co.uk/ (5)
http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=306 (6)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1092390.stm (7)
http://www.facebook.com/tesco#!/tesco?sk=wall&filter=1 (8)
http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=359 (9)
http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/emma-harrison-the-uks-biggest-benefit-cheat/
riotact
Homepage:
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Comments
Hide the following 7 comments
haha just imagine the stunts you can pull
16.02.2012 18:17
i used to work for a supermarket and regularly set off fire alarms really good fun, and well as general shoplifting.
joe blogs
dole leeches
16.02.2012 21:15
Typical fucking scum. Agrees to take a job for a wage and then welshes on the deal.
And people wonder why low paid workers get a rap, because they arn't fucking working.
Next time i'm in tesco im going to piss up the wall in the toilet so some cunt like this has to clean it up
anon
Thanks anon you gave me an idea...
16.02.2012 22:08
Then we get a mass of people going in and pissing everywhere, crapping on the floor, vomiting on the automated checkout machine etc.
At that crucial moment get the workers to picket the store, refusing to work unless they get a permanent contract + pension.
Do this during shopping hours and the shop will loose significant revenues. Give the manager a warning, you have 20 minutes to give us permanent contract or we all walk out. The Job Centre can't complain because they were actively seeking a full time employment (as required by the contract). and Tesco might just reconsider it's slaves for money policy.
BTW, can anyone confirm this, I've heard that Tesco gets a £1000 for any slave they get on that scheme, paid for by the previous commentator.
Expect us...
maybe its because I'm clumsy
17.02.2012 08:36
luka
Picket
17.02.2012 18:29
Barney
Boycot
18.02.2012 16:20
Are they fuck, only in your dreams Sparty.
Shopper
Reporting the illegal state subsidy
19.02.2012 19:39
"if you refuse to take part in, or leave a scheme before completing it, you may suffer a benefit sanction. This means that you will have your Jobseeker’s Allowance suspended for two weeks in the first instance."
(Source DWP)
To be clear, youir participation in the Work Programme is nothing to do with absence or presence of efforts to find work. It is all based on time.
"If you have not found work after 13 weeks, your personal adviser will review the situation with you. The interview may take place on a day other than the unemployed person’s usual attendance day. Attendance at the interview is compulsory."
(Source DWP)
So nothing voluntary there then: it is all about time. Tesco are waiting for people to be passed to them from the Jobcentre. It is not about creating work at all.
"As a result of the 13 week interview, you may: have your jobseeker’s agreement reviewed to reflect the fact that you will widen the range of jobs you will look for; be referred to a scheme or programme. If you do not attend the 13week review or fail to act on your personal adviser's suggestions, you may suffer a benefit sanction."
(Source DWP)
Again, nothing about it being related to being workshy or work proud.
What I would do as an employer. A large employer with a lot of low-skill to no-skill jobs. I would ask someone who their current employer is. If they did not have one then I would ask how long it is since they had one. Then I would not employ anyone - as is my right - who is twelve weeks unemployed. Because, in the thirteenth week I have a chance that they can be referred to me without payment. All I have to do is wait. It is a risk analysis.
The minimum wage is £6.08. The Employers' National Insurance Contribution can add another 13% onto that. Giving £6.87 an nour. So, in a week of work experience - doing real tasks in a real shop getting real experience - at 40 hours, I would save £274.82. Forget about the £65 (and other benefits) the person would be paid, I am only interested in what I save. Because I only need to be interested in my savings for the profit and loss account. I am being quite simplistic - excluding other savings I make on a wide range of things. In fact, it is like outsourcing but not having to pay for the headcount at all.
So Every week I save (lets say) £274 per person. I take on 1,400 That is £383,600 per week. Perhaps only 300 people take part in the scheme at any one time. So that would be a saving of £82,200. In thirteen weeks (which is long enough for the next batch of people to pasws through my waiting period) I would have saved £1,068,600. The amount saved would be £274 per person per work week, all I really need to do is multiply the number of work weeks I have people on the scheme by that figure to find out my saving. It is like some big welfare cheque hidden from the taxman.
Under European Competition Law if the amount of benefit €300,000 (about £255,000) or thereabouts then it would be an illegal state subsidy. That subsidy does not have anything to do with all the additional costs to me as an Employer in locating people to put through the Work Programme. (I could even claim the costs of administering the Work Programme in my business as a legitimate expense and claim that back from Europe). It is all about how much their participation is worth to me. Which I calculate to be about £4,274,400 per year if only 300 people per week participate in my scheme.
Reliable or not, the DWP have issued figures saying that 50% of people on the Work Programme go on to a "meaningful activity". Which means that 50% of people on the Work Programme stop claiming benefits and tell the DWP they are in "Education, Employment or Training". So, the Work Programme might be delivering 150 jobs per week to Tescos according to DWP figures. So, when it comes to Company Report time the 472,000 reported in 2011 should have grown to 479,800. If not, then Tesco is laying off people more quickly than they are taling them on. But, more importantly from the perspective of subsidy: it will only take Tesco about a week to exceed the European State Subsidy Limit.
Back to my example: if there is compulsion in people joining my business subsidy scheme then, once I reach €300,000 I have to justify myself to the European Competition Comission if someone complains. Quite simply because there are rules about what subsidy can be for. Although, if I campaign for the Work Programme to be 'less punitive' I might be able to claim that the subsidy is helping to improve workers' conditions. This might be difficult as the Unemployed are being portrayed as Workshy. So, unless there is a significant improvement in the condtions of the Unemployed - independent of any kind of working - then the question remains about the validity of the subsidy.
I might go further and say that the cost of 'training' outweighs the cost of subsidy. It would be in my interest for the Competition Comissioner to never see the self service tills in supermarkets - which people can use without training. This would be quite simply an obvious indicator that the subsidy was not for the benefit of the person participating in the Work Programme but a subsidy to profit.
In short, there is a very good case for supposing that anybody who takes on more than one or two people in a year - not only Tesco's - become the recipients of an illegal state subsidy. Which is all independent of how workshy or workproud the Unemployed are.
It really does not matter if the 'workshy, braindead muppets' exist or not. All that the recipient of the work element of the Work Programme needs to do is to be recipient of the presence of headcount. Then they recieve a subsidy. It is nothing to do with the competences of the headcount (which could be ascertained through prior interview - but I am not telling anybody how to run their business). The central issue is: is the headcount there and would the business pay for the headcount if they were there for any other reason? You answer yes and then you have to do the caluculations around subsidy.
I genuinely hate EU Forms. They are tedious in the extreme. But they cover the ground fairly comprehensively:
Time to start Reporting Tesco for illegal state subsidy.
happy shopper