My lads were in the smoke yesterday an bumped into some protest going on to do with the governments new unpaid work scheme(Workfare) where folk have to do a type of free community service for their benefits. The trouble is it means employers can lay-off their staff and replace them with people they dont have to pay. Apparently the point of "Workfare"(lol) is to drive down wages and working conditions, undermining even the minimum wage which many struggle to survive on. So unemployed people are being forced to work for free for up to 6 months with no guarantee of a job afterwards, an many of them for major high street companies. Its bang out of order. Workfare isnt about saving money-in fact these schemes are hugely expensive to the government, Workfare is a massive subsidy to private companies; providing them with free labour at public expense. The government has long been subsidising companies that pay low wages by topping-up poverty pay with benefits and tax credits. Workfare means less pay for us and more profits for them. The state and businesses are colluding to undermine all our conditions. http://www.solfed.org.uk/
we have a slightly different version in canada where the welfare office will find long term recipients a job ... people that chronically do not show up get cut off the system
Yeah it was a similar set up here back in the good 'ol not so bad 'ol days. Nowerdays it seems as if wage slavery is being turned to plain unpaid slavery, i reckon even the welfare system itself will eventualy be run on the lower levels by slaves, most of its underdogs are probably on minimum wage as it is. The government's own research found that in countries that introduced workfare it could actually lower a jobseeker's chances of finding a job. Where previously these roles would have been filled by paid staff, employers get to take advantage of a growing pool of jobseekers they won't have to pay.
