The Age of Free Labour - No longer yours to sell. UK Thread.

Guardian: Young jobseekers told to work without pay or loose benefits.

Traditionally, free men/women sold their labour - whether skilled or unskilled for a certain price. In the Late 90's the labour government introduced the "minimum wage" which is practically applied to the majority of unskilled work. However, in recent years a new trend has started and employers are taking full advantage.

I wont be meek about my accusation - I honestly feel that business (private sector) and government have colluded in order to create and supply free labour. With an estimation of 2.6 Million Britons unemployed with roughly 300-500 thousand paid jobs to go around, there is plenty of "free labour" to be taken advantage of. But how have they set about making this acceptable?


First, they vilify the jobless. Anyone who lives in the UK will have at some point seen a front page attack on the working class refering them to them as "scroungers" "lay-abouts" "benefit cheats" "lazy" They often take one example of one person who cheated the system for a few thousand pounds and sprout the ignorant opinion that anyone on jobseekers is scum who is living a wonderful life while you go out to work. This has been a very effective campaign of divide and conquer, with some daily mail/tory rag readers buying up every single word, Utterly convinced these people, who often grow up in poor, disadvantaged area's (which is surprisingly never mentioned) are totally in control of their job/life situation and really are CHOOSING to sit around. They like to make examples of bad parenting but then insist that both parents should be out working while their child/ren grow up without at least one parent at home - who would provide a dinner and ideally help with homework.

The media never refers to facts - Such as how the minimum wage has never risen above inflation. Or how going out and working 37.5hrs a week will more than likely leave you worse off Neither do they like to mention how expensive living has become due to inflation - which has risen by around 85% Between the years of 1990-2010. See Here

Next, promote an idealist dream. The one manufactured in this country was "The big society"
The big society - A very socialist idea promoted by a very blue blooded conservative party. The message was simple "We are all in this together and therefore we should all go that extra mile - free of charge"
The trouble with this way of thinking is that many of us cannot afford to be charitable with our time. A middle class school leaver who doesn't have to pay rent/board would probably take great advantage of such an "opportunity" However, a working class school leaver is very unlikely to have time to partake in such activities. As soon as they leave school their parents require them to start putting money into the pot, this requires them to have some sort of income.

Thirdly, after victimising tax payers via emotional blackmail and demonizing working class people - Actively start "work-placements" and kicking people off of benefits for refusing to do 30hrs of unpaid and unskilled work a week. For big business companies such as tescos, who announced a £2.5 billion UK profit margin after tax (See here) this is great news.
Your tax money is paying for tesco's shelves to be stacked at night - Because they wont pay someone in need of a job a wage to do that work. Why should they? They can use someone on benefits to do that job for a fraction of the price under the guise that they're getting a fair deal because they're building experience in unskilled donkey work and are garunteed to have an interview at the end of it. Great eh?

But lets not single out tescos, poundland are also a great abuser of this "free labour" trend, also my last employer Dunelm mill fancied a slice of the pie. Im sure there are many other companies out there who are and have taken part in such a scheme.

It is ever becoming acceptable to pay for the exchange of labour without cash. Companies that wish to use a persons time for 30 hrs a week and pay them in nothing but "Experience" are nothing but scum and should be boycotted.

With a greater emphasis on reducing claimants of ALL benefits, including those who are disabled or suffering legitimate illness (such as cancer) i would go as far to say that the "free-labour market" has been masterminded and is working out quite nicely. Youth unemployment is through the roof, education is to expensive to stay in, with unemployment for graduates also remaining pretty high.

The "job-creaters" are doing a pretty pisspoor job of "creating" jobs and are instead, testing people for 8 weeks at a time on their ability to stack shelves - at the tax payers expense. They are exploiting unemployed people and perpetuating the cycle by NOT employing people - despite record profits.

Lastly i would just like to link a few videos that will give you more information on this subject.








Hope this thread has at least shined some light onto what i consider to be an important issue. Obviously im posting this thread because i would like to hear people opinions on wha'ts been going on and how it should progress.
Work is good thing, it keeps people active, but working for nothing is wasteful and pointless. Foricng the unemployed to go out to work without paying them a proper wage is wrong.

I hope this issue can be discussed objectively and not via political stances of "left and right" paradigms.
Thank you for taking the time to read the opening post!

I spoke about this a few times. They wonder why there are no jobs out their when large corporations have been given free labour for the last 4 years. Illegally up until now (which is still a crime IMO).. They caught in 2011 telling everybody theu were forced to work 8 weeks mandatory, turns out they lied through their teeth.

Have you heard of the Youth Opportunity Scheme YOP or the Youth Training Scheme YTS?

It was brought in by "she who must not be named".

The idea was to keep school leavers off the dole queue and stop them from going to University by putting them on Government paid, free to the employer training schemes.



Problem was. Just before the Year ran out, most of them were let go, and companies got new ones in.

The poor buggers that had trained for most of that year had nothing to show for it.

Cameron is trying the same thing.

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


Firstly, excellent, well thought out and presented thread

It is interesting that we are unable to get those held at Her Majesty's pleasure to earn their own keep because it evidently contravenes their human rights, and yet, it is permissible to expect people to earn their state entitlements. Of course, the loop hole is that they are given the choice, the choice being, to do as they are 'asked' or get nothing. Not much of a choice there. But who is going to stand up for them and be counted? And there lies the problem, and the reason which you have outlined so eloquently, is that popular opinion has sidelined those on benefits as being social pariahs. The moral majority is therefore on the side of the government. I would hazard that the only viable solution is for a case to be taken to the human rights commission, in my opinion, it is the only body that is capable of addressing the situation. The unions have been systematically castrated in recent years, and are proving almost entirely ineffective largely due to the fall in subscriptions following the betrayal of socialism that was Tony Blair and New Labour.

This is one of the very many reasons that I will not pay central taxes or work for the private sector. Centralised government is a failure, and has become increasingly, as if it could have gotten worse in the first place, unrepresentative. Our government is in the service of the City, that is all, nothing else.

reply to post by BritofTexas


And why, by replacing the apprenticeship system with YTS and by nationalising industry, the replication of the skill base was thereby destroyed, they thus ensured the need for economic immigration. We are now entering into the second generation of young people who have been completely left behind by the economy, and it is this 'underclass' that is being exploited, when through no genuine fault of their own they have been left with no hope and no future.

Indeed, im not saying people shouldnt work but at the end of the day, their needs to be jobs for people to go to. If more people are being forced to work for nothing then there isnt enough pressure on business to create jobs for people to have.

Also would like to briefly touch upon the lack of Full time work. In many retail sector based jobs, the best deal you'll get is part time, ranging from 16-30 hours, Its just not good. Even with the jobs available the hours aren't there for full-time employment, its a joke.

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


It is not so much that there is a shortage of jobs even, there is major growth in the financial sector work place, particularly insurance and other related products, but these jobs tend to require at least a degree for even an entry level post, and rather than create lower entry training posts, they demand that overseas workers be allowed to apply for jobs (remember Murdoch saying that he wouldn't provide his normal funding to labour if they cut economic immigration?). Tescos probably don't need those people to work for them, as in, they are adequately staffed...it is only because they are being offered these people free of charge that they are taking them on...so if that is the case, why aren't the industries, such as the financial sector, being encouraged to do the same? There is a gross disparity here.

For the last seven years, I have been self-employed, running my own transport/removals business.
In the financial crash of 2008, I lost pretty much all of my removals work, as people were unable to get mortgages.
The only work I could find was a verbal contract with a firm delivering to shops in the West End of London.
Yesterday, I was told that this work was finished, no slight on me or my abilities, but simply that they cannot afford to pay me any more.
Having been earning an honest living, and paying my full share of tax, my business has crashed to dust, and in regard to the posts in this thread, I am NOT looking forward to signing on the dole on Monday morning. I am nearly 55 years old, and I can be versatile, with many skills, but I feel that I have been thrown onto the scrapheap, as employers these days would rather take on a 16-year old out of school, pay them minimum wage, and train them in-house than take on someone with experience.
This Government has a lot to answer for, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum!

reply to post by Biliverdin


Precisely.

Back in the day "she who must not be named" had destroyed the manufacturing industry and did not want the children of the great unwashed taking away the Graduate jobs from her cronies.

Unfortunately Cameron is trying the same failed policies.

France seems to be about to try the right idea. It is going to be interesting to see what happens.

reply to post by Biliverdin

Centralised government is a failure, and has become increasingly, as if it could have gotten worse in the first place, unrepresentative. Our government is in the service of the City, that is all, nothing else.

Gave you a star but I do not think the problem is a centralized government but the central government that exists as standard today. There is benefit in having a central government (easier to control, change, adapt, monitor and more efficient in general). The issue is on the archaic structure, attempt to control too much and the politicization of public functions and agents (the power structures inside power).

If the company have a vacancy for a shelf filler/ cleaner etc , why not give that unemployed person the job at a fair wage? Just getting slave labour funded by mr & mrs taxpayer

Slaves!
why not Give some one a True Job?
instead of using a slave?

If the Slave can do the Job.
then that IS a job some one will never have !!!!
Dont fall for it. speak out.

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


Wow, star and flag for being aware and connecting the dots and putting the information together.

This subject is very important and hopefully those who are blinded by the same old "it's my tax money" can see what is actually occurring, thanks to this thread.

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


After being on and off the dole for 3 years since 2008, I seriously count my lucky stars that I got a real job late last year. It seems I sidestepped a massive landmine and I know how lucky I am. I seriously feel for the people who are out of work but are genuinely trying to get a job.

I know many people who have managed to stay employed throughout the financial crisis/scam and their attitudes are all the same. They seriously don't understand how hard it is out there when no company will even offer you an interview, nevermind a job... Most of them don't even bother replying to your application.

It's sickening and it's sending the unemployed into a spiral of despair.

Originally posted by royspeed
This Government has a lot to answer for, the lunatics have truly taken over the asylum!

They are not lunatics. They are doing exactly what was expected. None of this is about doing what is best for the country. This is all about preserving a way of life for the very rich and ensuring that every last possible penny goes upwards into their offshore accounts. That is why not one single person has been jailed for any of the recent financial fiddles (banking crisis, PPI misselling, Libor). In addition they will dismantle every single last vestige of anything that is truly national and for the people, the NHS being the biggest. Watch out the NHS is being sold to private companies who reward the Tory party with huge donations.

Take a step back and ask yourself : If I you wanted dismantle everything and make the rich as powerful and rich as possible without accounting for any wrongdoings how would you go about it ? Answer - exactly everything that is happening DUH! How the Lib Dems can look at themselves in the mirror is beyond me.

After graduating with my degree in 2009 I have struggled to even get a job in a store or bar. I managed to get a job in 2011 which was funded by a government scheme called the future jobs fund which was to last for 6 months and the idea was the company who hired me would train me up and after the 6 months they would take me on.
How naive was I?
Turns out these companies just get rid of you after 6 months and get someone else on the scheme so they are basically getting an endless source of free labour.
I've been doing bits of voluntary work here and there but I'm still unemployed with no end in sight.

reply to post by SearchLightsInc


Great thread, written with the vitriol of personal experience - no bad thing.

Thanks for making the effort to articulate such ominous goings-on in the UK. I'm in agreement with your conclusions and worry about the direction 'Big Society' taking us in - virtual enslavement.

I hope things work out for you.

I think that those of us who are too old for it to impact upon will be in for one hell of a spectacle in the not too distant future. I believe these corrupt MP's have created a monster that they will not be able to contain.
My generation would have been too soft to do anything, but the current generation, and perhaps the last, are totally unafraid. I can see them biting back and giving these rich and power hungry scumbags the hiding of their lives. Nothing will hit a rich man harder than turning him into a poor man. I can't wait to see it happen !

reply to post by SearchLightsInc



a sound post.

the minimum wage imo should apply to all work programs and it is curious as to how they circumvented it.

with the new universal credit system approaching fast, this situation i feel will greatly affect more
than just the unemployed. self-employed,seasonal workers,farmers in fact anyone not embedded into
secure full-time tenureship of employment be it public or private sector are in for a rude awakening.
october 2013 will see the start of what could possibly be the greatest social upheaval since the
child evacuations of the second world war in terms of migration from capped housing benefits and
possibly the extending of employment search radius.

many details of the universal credit system are very fuzzy at the moment with ministers unwilling
or uncertain as to how it will function in the real world with its complexities from real-time
reporting on a monthly basis of income earned, to what happens to individuals caught up in domestic
abuse situations. for the self-employed, two methods of accounting will need to be undertaken,
one for the taxman and the other for the UC system and i feel this will burden those already struggling
to keep their heads above water. certain expenses of business undertakings will not be counted and
imo will be seen as income, thus reducing any assistance needed. the minimum income floor has not been
agreed as of yet but anyone who falls below this threshold with be tasked with seeking alternative
employment as the government will consider one as running a failing business. it seems those in power
are running with the credo 'only the strong will survive, screw the rest'.

best wishes fakedirt.

I heard the other thing they're doing is taking advantage of the apprenticeship system.

Obviously in the past an apprenticeship was to learn a useful trade like being an electrician, and while you're an apprentice you get paid crap wages, I don't even know if they have to pay minimum wage to apprentices.

Anyway, supposedly a lot of retail shops - yes the big corporations - are taking on lots of "apprentices" including people in their 50's, etc, and their apprenticeship consists of learning great skills like how to stack shelves all day, month, and year.

It's unbelievable that we haven't had a revolution yet.