Work for free - slave labour in Western Europe

[nnmartin]

The latest protest I have come across is in the UK where young peope are being forced to work for free at local supermarkets. The idea is that these people work unpaid at Tesco for 4 weeks in order to 'earn' their government welfare benefits.

This is supposedly to get people into the work place but less than 50% get offered work at the end of the period whilst Tesco's makes a nice saving on their wage bill to up their already bloated profits.

does this sound fair?

anyway, due to a large campaign against this scheme most of the large businesses have had to pull out and agree to pay the workers, which is surely what they should have been doing in the first place anyway.

any views on this issue?
does forcing young people to work for free actually help the economy?

main detail from link:

Tesco announced last night that it would pay youngsters on a Government work experience scheme after campaigners accused the supermarket giant of employing ‘slave labour’.
The U-turn is a blow to the Coalition’s flagship programme, which has already been hit by a string of defections from high street stores following a well-orchestrated campaign on Twitter.

​

link to article: Tesco makes dramatic U-turn over 'slave labour' scheme after Twitter outrage | Mail Online

 

[Madhuri]

Yeh that doesn't seem right. If you are going to work for government payments, you ma as well just work for pay.

In Aus you can get government payments while looking for work or get involved in voluntary organisations for gov payments. But actually working for free for a profit-making organisation, especially with a promise of employment afterward, does not seem ethical.

 

[Kathryn]

Wow, that seems totally skewered.

That being said, I don't see a problem with GOVERNMENT jobs being worked by those receiving government assistance. Stuff like picking up trash along the roads, working on landscaping/beautification of public parks and places, simple clerical work in government offices, etc. The work could be at a bit above minimum wage and calculated per the dollar amount of the assistance.

In fact, I LIKE that idea.

 

[nnmartin]

there is not actually a promise of work afterwards either though - it's just a maybe.

I think the figures were something like 300 people got work out of 1200!

the government also has to pay a private company a large sum for 'directing' people to Tesco's in the first place (around $3000 per person in some cases)

this is sheer right-wing fascism thanks to the likes of Convervative Cameron and his private school cronies

 

[nnmartin]

I like the fact that posters on Twitter organised a viral campaign against this exploitation and actually won.

Many other companies have now pulled out of the scheme (Burger King for example).

It is being compared to 'Workfare' from the US.

 

[Madhuri]

If you are going to make people work for a government payment, make them something for the community, not large corporations. That's my opinion.

 

[Yerda]

When I heard of this 'work for your benefits' idea I thought it would be community service type stuff. It shouldn't really come as a surprise though. The past couple of years in the UK have been characterised by audacious schemes to force the public to pay for the mess left by casino bankers and the feral rich.

A lot of the companies have pulled out of the project over the negative reporting in the past couple of weeks, which is good.