Ah! MR Cod'ead speaks. The man who regularly provides links to the Gospel according to The Independent. I thought it was odd he hadn't provided this particular link, so I obliged. Clearly, The Independent, like the Daily Mail et al can be unreliable when the views expressed in it don't accord with one's own. Cod'ead - you ought to get a job in censorship!

Here was me thinking it was because they were frustrated because the left-wing c**ts are not willing and open enough to try new things!

Now why on earth would I provide links to articles written by someone with whom I don't agree?



One of the reasons I read the Indy is exactly because they have columnists and commentators whose views are at odds with mine. It's called keeping an open mind, something the average Dally Wail reader should try some time.

What new things do you suggest they try? Casual racism, perhaps?

Best to start with homophobia and work up to racism.

I work for Debenhams, in a warehouse not a store, and we currently have FIVE of these free-labour lads on our books for eight weeks. I was on benefits for 3 years up until the job centre put me on a work placement at a British Heart Foundation shop in Widnes. During my time there i applied for a job at Debenhams and got it, 6 years later I'm still working full time, earning a wage. It's a positive move if done right. The only thing you can say about my experience though is that the beneficiary of MY forced work was a charity, not a multi-billion pound business....

[url=http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/vulnerable-man-lauds-volunteers-who-'keep-him-going'-201202214918/Vulnerable man lauds volunteers...[/url

He has already done homophobia!

We had a lad come and work for us for free - he was a friend of my son and had the initiative to ask us to give him work experience. We offered him advice for job interviews and he got a job with a large firm in a department he wanted to work in. Before joining us he had got nowhere.



A Russian lady came and worked for us for free because she was bored sitting at home. She would even turn up unannounced and come and ask to do work. In return we offered gave her leads to work on a self-employed basis for one or two of our clients. She has now taken on other work and is working more of less full-time on a self-employed basis.



It seems to me that people who show initiative and take chances they are offered (like you did) get rewarded.

Who has?

I hope you checked her visa

Did that email originate in a tanning shop in Luton?

I ticked the box!

Taking away honest workers overtime so they can pay folks nothing until the bad PR got unbelivable and they were forced to change tac, Whatever next...

TBH I would be happy if the just paid all the normal taxes they owe.

You make it sound like overtime is some sort of right.

A living wage should be

I'm not sure how widely this was repeated nationwide, but our local Tesco used this free labour instead of hiring the usual extra staff over the Xmas period. So in this case at least it cost actual jobs rather than overtime for existing staff. A double loss for the taxpayer.

I must admit I am strongly against anyone being forced to work in order to claim their benefits, and to be perfectly honest I don't really agree with this scheme either, but I can see the positives of it whereas others only see negatives. Having rafts of temporary staff in and out of work does no more for the taxpayer than improving the employability of the long term unemployed.

?

Just going off my local supermarkets but the majority of the temporary staff employed over Xmas are either students earning a bit extra, retired people doing a bit extra to top up their pension or people who normally only work part-time somewhere else. They're not really people who are "in and out of work".

As said before, if there is a job to be done at Tesco's (or anywhere else) then pay someone to do it, don't get free labour on the excuse of "improving employability". A 4 week work experience stacking shelves at Tesco does virtually nothing to improve employability unless there is a job at the end of it (which the new Tesco scheme appears to virtually guarantee now). If these work experience places were on Tesco's management then there might be a point to it (actually improving transferable skills). But working for free stacking shelves is unacceptable for a company that makes billions of pounds profits.

The Workfare scheme wouldn't have had anywhere close to the negative publicity it has received if the employers had topped up the JSA to minimum wage levels

Trouble is though this scheme is so discredited already that it will mean nothing to future employers, even the bonus of a decent reference won't happen as employers now don't even give out information beyond start and end dates.

Maybe so, but its better than nowt and at least shows you have got off your backside. I think its too early to judge personally.