Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Harringay Homebase using unpaid jobseekers
As a regular Homebase customer I was pretty disappointed to read this in today's Guardian:
http://m.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/apr/06/homebase-criticised-wo...
Why are the jobcentres helping Homebase at a time when a lot of our Haringey community centres are in trouble and closing down? I find it hard to see how this is 'of benefit to the community', as this scheme is supposed to be. Surely this is effectively subsidizing Homebase with taxpayers money at a time when a lot of our community funding has been cut. I'd be interested to know who makes the decisions as to where work scheme participants go - looks like Finsbury park jobcentre in this case. I'm thinking it may be worth a letter to them (and Homebase).
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Abi on
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Look at it this way - is there any evidence that this programme is indeed 'getting people back into work?' From all I've seen, it only serves to (a) take up people's time when they could be looking for actual work and (b) create more dependency because nobody is being paid anything to do it. Where do you think the money they need to live on then comes from? The only people benefitting as far as I can tell are big chains like Homebase - who could easily afford to pay a modest wage to people in this situation which would at least make it less of an insult, even if it remains a useless time-wasting exercise.
If I were in that situation (and even though I have an Oxbridge degree and a decent CV yes, this is actually the sort of thing I worry about because my company is on the rocks and there are very few jobs in my industry) then would I want to be wasting my time stacking shelves for nothing when I could actually be - you know - seeking a job?
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Well, the first time I heard about this story was when it was reported that poundland were doing it: everyone interviewed reported having to do menial work all day that did not relate to anything they might want to do in the real world. And it wasn't like it was just one day a week, it seemed to be close to full time for a period. I'm not saying there is no argument for getting people 'active' in some way or another, but this really, really isn't the right way to do that. Some sort of training at the very least needs to be happening.
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Permalink Reply by Protheroe O'Shea on
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Well they could work in hospitals, schools children's services, youth services all those public sector areas that the are getting cut to ribbons, rather than lining the pockets of multi nationals.
In Germany its what they do for national service
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If I were a patient in hospital I would not want people looking after me that hadn't chosen to be there...it's bad enough that nursing staff aren't paid enough to want to do the job properly as it is.
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There are many jobs in hospitals that do not involve looking after patients .
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Permalink Reply by John D on
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In financial, media, and many other fields they are called interns. I hated the system but suppose the intern gets free training while the employer gets free labour.
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This is very true, however interns are generally treated with a bit of respect and do get exposure to good professional experience. I loathe this system as well, but ten years in the media has taught me that almost all the interns I've met (including myself) do end up with a job, usually at the same company. The real issue here is elitism as it's only those with rich parents or family willing to put them up rent free in London that can generally afford to do it.
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Permalink Reply by Lucy C on
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SoTo Sister and John - totally! The trend for unpaid interns is worrying and not a fair system. Perhaps understandable in smaller charities, but not for larger companies/organisations with better funding.
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It's really nice to see I'm not the only one who got angry about this. I totally agree with the points being made that work experience can sometimes be useful. I wouldn't object to anyone who wanted to having a short period of unpaid work experience at Homebase. What really bothers me about this story is that a) people are having to work up to 780 hours unpaid, b) they are forced to do it and c) this is a profit-making company, not a charity or community service. The combination of these things IMO is deeply wrong. Also what got me, as shown by the internal Homebase doc that Seema posted, they seem to have used this program a deliberate strategy to cut payroll costs. If they need more staff, Homebase can afford to pay them!
How you get people back into work is an interesting and complex question - no simple answers I agree. It would definitely be a good start if all jobs had to pay a decent wage (I do like the London Living Wage campaign). There was a piece on Radio 4 which pointed out that more government money is spent on Working Tax Credits than on Jobseekers Allowance, i.e. people are paid so little the government has to top up their wages - again effectively subsidising many large companies - aargh! Even if you put aside the question of whether people should be forced to work, I don't see it can be right to give this state-paid labour to a profit-making company at a time especially when our community services are being cut to pieces.
Thanks for sharing the previous post on Lymbo and Lido, agree these shops are a real pleasure to go to. Lido is the closest to me, it's a proper treasure trove and amazing how they have almost everything and can find it in no time as well. I just need to find a good alternative for paints/power tools etc which they don't really do, I guess B&Q is one option.
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