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Homebase UK are the latest users of free forced labour in the form of workfare
Diaz
Posts: 220 Forum Member
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Easter for some. Workfare for others.
Perhaps eager to claim a chocolate Easter egg bonus, Job Centre staff in Finsbury Park (London) this week congratulated each other for securing 21 workfare placements in a single Homebase store in Haringay. This is a store that is not advertising for workers: more evidence that workfare replaces paid work.
Last year the boss of Home Retail Group – who also own workfare exploiters Argos – was paid £1.1 million. You’d think they could afford a living wage for the people working in their stores.
Homebase have responded to the spontaneous public reaction calling for them to quit the scheme by deleting tens of comments on its Facebook Page, then disabling comments, then promising a statement on Tuesday, then taking the page down, then resurrecting the page free of any mention of workfare, then taking the page down again. It’s clear our actions are having an impact.
Let’s keep going until everyone working in their stores is paid!
Contact Homebase:
On Facebook (if they bring their page back again): facebook.com/homebase
On Twitter: Tweet to @homebase_uk
By email: order.enquiries@homebase.co.uk or info@homebase.co.uk or enquiries@homebase.co.uk
By phone: 0845 077 8888 or 0845 601 6911
Or contact the company they are owned by: http://www.homeretailgroup.com/contact-us/
Perhaps eager to claim a chocolate Easter egg bonus, Job Centre staff in Finsbury Park (London) this week congratulated each other for securing 21 workfare placements in a single Homebase store in Haringay. This is a store that is not advertising for workers: more evidence that workfare replaces paid work.
Last year the boss of Home Retail Group – who also own workfare exploiters Argos – was paid £1.1 million. You’d think they could afford a living wage for the people working in their stores.
Homebase have responded to the spontaneous public reaction calling for them to quit the scheme by deleting tens of comments on its Facebook Page, then disabling comments, then promising a statement on Tuesday, then taking the page down, then resurrecting the page free of any mention of workfare, then taking the page down again. It’s clear our actions are having an impact.
Let’s keep going until everyone working in their stores is paid!
Contact Homebase:
On Facebook (if they bring their page back again): facebook.com/homebase
On Twitter: Tweet to @homebase_uk
By email: order.enquiries@homebase.co.uk or info@homebase.co.uk or enquiries@homebase.co.uk
By phone: 0845 077 8888 or 0845 601 6911
Or contact the company they are owned by: http://www.homeretailgroup.com/contact-us/
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Comments
But if this Homebase took any of these workfare people on - then nothing wrong with this at all.
If i could get given free food... why would I go to a shop and pay for it?
Real work experience would be in a skilled department (be it admin, IT , HR) with qualifictations.
I would like to see real work experience for the longterm unemployed but it would need to be structured in a field the claimant is interested and have realetd qualifications.
Give them motivation and interest in work.
But they weren't. They weren't advertising for staff as it says above. To me this says that the store in question is using these people to help out. A store doesn't suddenly need to employ 21 people.
Imagine I'm on the dole, I want a full time job in somewhere like tesco or home base to be told they arnt hiring right now. Yet a day later when i go to sign on, my job centre tells me I'm about to lose my dole money unless I go on one of the workfare schemes in tesco or home base. But, but I thought they wernt hiring right now?!
What is RIGHT with that?
Also these major corps are getting free labour paid for by the tax payer.
I might have more sympathy if they were working for not for profit community projects, the claimant probably would be as well.
Well I don't see nothing wrong with it. Lets say the store I work in isn't hiring because we don't need any staff, but it's still busy, but like every company these days, they have to stuggle along trying to keep wages down. If you can get someone for free to help out, then why not?
The only thing I would change is I wouldn't have people in stores like Tesco, I would have people cleaning up the streets, painting things that need painting, cleaning grafiti and stuff like that.
Absolutely! I would support community based projects for long term doleys. Free labour for huge companies, not at all, I dot care whether the person gets taken on at the end or not, they should be taken on with full pay and training the start!
Anyway, If someone is happy to volunteer their time for free, that's different. If the company is busy then it obviously needs an extra member of staff, and if the company can't run without free lanour, it's business model is wrong and it shold fail.
Besides, any company that can afford to pay its boss a million quid in bonuses* isn't struggling for cash to hire staff.
Eta - *paid a million, not bonus
What is wrong though is not taking any of them on.
No, I don't think I did?
Yes you are right of course, but that's just the way companys run these days, even before they got this free labour. Say they can't afford any more staff yet have the staff running around like idiots because there is to much work on, believe me, it's been going on for years and has nothing to do with free labour.
Yes you did, you said its ok for big business to take on workfare. Then you said you would change it so big business couldn't utilise workfare.
If a boss is paid a million quid, and the board are paid in excess of £100k etc, they're not a skint company, they CAN afford more staff. But the reason the boss gets paid and the shareholders get paid is because they're good at squeezing every last bit of effort and work at the lower echelons of their business for the least amount of pay.
I think it is ok. That doesn't mean I wouldn't change it though. That's not contradicting myself.
I think we all know this, but that is how they work and that's how they have worked for years. I don't think it's a valid opinion that workfare is taking up jobs and companys are using free labour instead of paying people to do it. As I pointed out comapnys have been running on minimum staff for years. Companys are taking advantage of the free labour to help out, not to cover paid work, that's the way I see it.
Because most of the people using the slave... sorry free labour are companies that keep posting millions of pounds/dollars profit why should Tesco be allowed to say we made say £145m profit in this quarter when nationally they could employ just ONE of the people that are doing "free" labour nationally and pay him a wage. If he is earning say £12,000 per year in one quater he is earning £3,000. Take £3,000 out of £145m and it barely registers.
No company that is turning huge profits should be allowed to have so called "voluntary" workers on this scheme.
An straight away you will have a few problems on your hands
1) Council will cut the number of paid sweepers/cleaners and use free labour instead. Thus creating unemployment for people currently employed.
My local NHS have a scheme going called Health Trainers giving free 6 week health sessions. The trainers were paid £15ph. It's now been handed to the local council. They have told the current Health Trainers that tehy intend on using trained up volunteers to do yoru job but we are prepared to pay you as you currently have the jobs. However that was with the NHS and not us so we will pay you £10ph. They all need the money so said ok. If they said no they would just pull the service and say cuts.
2) Who is going to pay for all the equipment for all this painting and graffiti removal?
The protective clothing, the materials, the travelling expenses and so forth.
What if scaffolding is needed? Who pays for that? How about the H&S person that has to do the risk assessment and give the all clear?
The workforce may be free, but not everything connected to it is also free.
My GP surgery had lots of people complaining about not being able to get appointments, many saying they were at work so could only do evenings as well. There was suggestions of having the surgery open on Saturday mornings. They agreed to do that. They stayed open 9am-1pm every Saturday for 6 months and then they pulled the service because they were lucky to see four patients on a Saturday. However it was costing the surgery more to pay a receptionist to fo overtime, electric for lights and heating, the cost of a practice nurse, the GP themselves. Cost, cost cost. Not only financial, the staff were giving up their free time when they get to see their kids and family and the cost that tehy were working even more hours per week.
Yeah, just open on a Saturday, sod any costs because we didn't actually think about them, just think easy fix to a problem.
Workforce isn't creating paid jobs it's stopping paid work and causing a knock on effect in other areas too.
It removes the first ruing of the work ladder.
You have lots of unemployed, unskilled workers.
Then you take all the jobs that would suit these people, and fill them not with workers, but a rotating supply of free labour.
Think of it like turning all first-time buyer priced homes into rental accommodation.... it means no-one can get all the ladder.
It's making unemployment *worse*, because it's slashing the supply of jobs.
(this is ignoring all the ethical issues, which people can disagree on, and just pointing out why it's a stupid system practically, which everyone can agree on).
If I were Wickes or a local DIY chain, I'd be complaining about the subsidies been given by taxpayers to their competition.
Maybe a good advertising avenue "shop at Wickes, we pay our employees"
Il forgive your leading question. But it is not wrong. There are many chronic unemployed people out there. They apply/present for interviews as required to claim JSA, but are immediately overlooked as their CV's have huge gaps in employment history, some have lost basic skills for customer interaction, some have criminal records. Thus the government has set up work experience schemes to give these people a chance to put right those very things which are making them unemployable.
There are a hardcore who just don't like being helped and do whatever they can to get out of it.
There is nothing wrong with the ideology of the schemes. There are a few issues to be addressed with the implementation of the schemes.
My local HB and wickes are right next to one another. If wickes tried that tactic i'd be straight into HB to buy my DIY supplies.
Im not really into "you said this so you must think this type arguments". These people are not employees. They are unemployable people who have a lack of experience/skills and that is stopping them point blank re-entering the workforce. This work experience scheme is to bring their skills and employ-ability back up so they can build from there and go on to secure a paid position