I can just hear the Cameron/Osborne/ Oxbridge millionaire duet, chucklng over their champagne, "you ain't seen nothin' yet." as they come up with more ways to give their millionaire business friends more cheap and free labour. The "labour market" is now riddled with part-time low paid jobs, zero hours contracts, workfare slave labour schemes, sanctions and below inflation wage increases, if you get one at all. It doesn't end there, longer slave labour periods, more sanctions, smart cards to monitor your spending and being punished if you don't earn enough, are all part of the package they have in mind for you and your kids. Is there anybody looking at this can still see any illusion of democracy?
An appeal from Boycott Workfare:
Tens of organisations have already quit workfare. The government will not reveal which organisations are still using it for fear the schemes will collapse. Its contractors complain that they have lost hundreds of placements due to public pressure.Workfare: If you exploit us we will shut you down!But they’re trying it again with a new scheme – “Community Work Placements” – launching on 1 April 2014 which will force claimants to work for six months without pay. Six months – 780 hours – is more than twice the maximum community service sentence. Workfare does not help people find jobs and being unemployed is not a crime.This new workfare scheme is part of a raft of draconian measures, misleadingly called “Help to Work”, which are designed to increase sanctions (benefit stoppages) and undermine wages still further.For the workfare schemes to happen, they need places to send people, but tens of large charities have already quit. Oxfam stated that the schemes were incompatible with its goal of reducing poverty in the UK. Liverpool CVS has condemned the scheme in the strongest possible terms.Our action can stop companies, charities and councils from exploiting forced unpaid work and make make sure this new scheme falls flat on its face. Wherever you are, however you can contribute, take action on 29 March-6 April.
