Workfare racket undercuts low paid staff

Today's Sunday Post column in full

Three cheers for Cait Reilly. The 24 year-old Birmingham lass finished a geology degree last summer but couldn't find a paid job. Instead of lounging around at home, she got up, got out and found herself voluntary work at a local museum where she hoped to build a career using her science skills. So far, so good.But then the government stepped in to "help." Cait could either "volunteer" for work experience -- 30 hours a week unpaid labour at Poundland -- or lose her weekly £53.45 Job Seekers Allowance. Nice. Cait stuck Poundland for two weeks before calling time, getting legal advice and taking her case to court. Never mind David and Goliath. Cait took on the full might of David Cameron's government – and won. Speaking outside the court she said; "I don't think I'm above working in shops. I now work part-time in a supermarket. It is just that I expect to get paid for working. If government (workfare) schemes helped young people into jobs they wouldn't have to force us to attend." Quite.

Three judges decided the workfare regulations were unlawful and quashed them. Cait's solicitors now maintain anyone docked jobseeker's allowance can demand the money back. The Department of Work and Pensions say "no way" and have announced plans to appeal. But instead of being congratulated for her brave stand, young Brummie Cait faces a barrage of criticism. "I'm a graduate get me out of here" – said one newspaper headline. "What a Diva graduate" said another. One critic suggested Cait's whistleblowing would only guarantee her a tough time finding a job -- "Perhaps her lawyers will give her an internship." Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith accused her of "sneering at hard working taxpayers." And London Mayor Boris Johnson called her a textbook example of workshy youth ; "I couldn't believe when leaving university that having a job meant getting up so early." But BoJo belonged to a generation of students with a grant. A study by the Halifax Building Society found 52% of today's students work part-time to fund their studies and still leave yooney with debt. Scotland has the highest number of working students (67%) and Stirling University reckons their average is nearer 75%. How patronising of Bojo to suggest these young folk turn their posh little noses up at cleaning, check-out and bar jobs or need unpaid Poundland to teach them about stacking shelves and turning up on time. They've been doing nothing else for most of their university lives!

Workfare schemes look increasingly like a racket designed to give free labour to big firms who make enough money to pay the minimum wage. Over the busy Christmas period in 2012, big stores used workfare placements instead of hiring new recruits or offering overtime. An English food company recently sacked 350 workers and moved production to a plant with 100 workfare placements, 'to give them an idea of what it's like to work in the food sector.' While working there, unpaid Jobseekers are counted as "employed" -- so they help ease George Osborne's jobless figures while undercutting low paid workers – and they don't get useful experience. A 2008 DWP survey showed workfare made little difference to employment prospects and reduced chances by making workers "unavailable" for other opportunities – like Cait and her lost museum work. I've a lot of admiration for her "get up and go" – I volunteered at a radio station for four months without pay when I left yooney back in the 90's. It wasn't easy to put your foot in the door and ask unknown bosses to give you a chance. But for me it was the only way into journalism.So I hope Cait will be philosophical and keep hopes of a museum career alive. After all - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Even a tussle with IDS.

Comments

[Nic]

To label Cait Reilly as a job snob is laughable, to label her as workshy is downright offensive. If she were workshy, why on Earth would she be taking the trouble to voluntarily work at a museum? And as far as being a job snob goes, she's not sounding off, demanding only the most prestigious graduate jobs, she's working part-time at Morrison's. So much for being a job snob. Besides, nothing about the way she handled herself led me to believe that she thinks herself above retail. Believe me, I have enough experience of retail myself to recognise a snobbish attitude, and you'd better believe that I refuse to tolerate it.

Cait Reilly, along with anyone else placed on Workfare, had a right to expect the scheme to be of benefit. If a scheme is intended to help the unemployed back into work, there ought to be some obvious benefit to the job seeker. That might be a glowing reference if they've done good work, or new experience or skills, things that employers are genuinly looking for. An interview perhaps or, and here's a novel concept, the minimum wage. None of these expectations are unreasonable or things that could only spring from an entitled adolescent mind. Workfare offered Cait Reilly nothing, and the only benefit went to Poundland. That's wrong, and I applaud Cait Reilly for standing up against it.