There’s mounting evidence the Government’s work and employment strategy is deliberately geared towards the exploitation of workers and the unemployed.

Here are eight reasons to be suspicious:

DWP’s own analysis shows forced unpaid work hurts prospects
Yesterday the Department for Work and Pensions published an impact assessment of its Mandatory Work Activity programme – its forced unpaid workfare scheme. It said it has no positive impact on employment, and is actually likely to lead to people moving from JSA to ESA, which is associated with long-term unemployment and effectively reclassifies unemployed workers as disabled.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) peer reviewed the study, found it to be spot-on, and concluded that it was “very difficult to see the justification for spending millions of pounds on a programme which isn’t working”. Yet it continues.

After discovering their programme is making things worse, the DWP extended it
How did the Government react to this advice? On the same day as their own damning report was published, ministers decided to expand the mandatory work programme.

Unpaid workers are replacing paid posts
Ministers have long argued that providing firms with unpaid labour would not reduce their demand for paid staff. This has always been a flimsy claim: retailers have been laying off paid staff and taking on unpaid Work Programme staff at the same time. But high profile case studies like the Jubilee Stewards unpaid labour camp cast even more doubt on these claims. The firm paid 50 “apprentice jubilee stewards” £2.80/hr, but did not pay the 30 Work Programme “intern jubilee stewards” anything. But there was no discernable difference between the two roles – the unpaid stewards, bussed in from a hundred miles away, were simply filling demand that would have otherwise been paid positions. This suggests the Work Programme is actually stopping paid work from being created.

If this was about creating jobs, job schemes that worked wouldn’t have been stopped
One of the first things the new Government did was close down the Future Jobs Fund, which created jobs: over 100,000 at at least minimum wage. More recently, the Government has closed the Remploy factories, which provided direct employment for disabled people – the very people it claims it wants to get back into work. It is now proposing to give disabled people unlimited unpaid work or cuts in their benefits.

Apprenticeships are being used as cover to pay below the minimum wage
Apprentices do not have to be paid the National Minimum Wage of £6.08/hr, but have a significantly lower rate of £2.60/hr. The Government has brought forward plans to create 100,000 new apprentices – but there has been systematic abuse of the scheme. At supermarket chain Morrisons 40% of staff are “apprentices”, and the firm alone employs 10% of the UK’s entire apprentice workforce.

The majority of the Jubilee stewards who had to sleep under a bridge were “apprentice jubilee stewards”. The heads of the apprentice scheme fell on their swords and resigned after massive criticism from MPs.

The Government is deliberately protecting employers who don’t pay their staff, despite its lawyers warning it is illegal
Internal government documents reveal the Government has deliberately adopted a strategy of promoting unpaid internships in the private sector – a policy euphemistically referred to by ministers as “Option B2” – and that this plan has stopped it from introducing measures its advisers say would help social mobility. It has done this despite the fact that the Government’s own lawyers have told it that unpaid internships break National Minimum Wage laws. Despite the tax authority HMRC now threatening bosses who don’t pay their staff with prison, BIS actively promotes these jobs on its website.

The DWP is acting like it has something to hide
When ministers go on television to explain parts of their work plan, the Department for Work and Pensions’ website has a habit of disappearing documents that explicitly contradict their public claims. This has happened several times now, and Channel 4 FactCheck has concluded that ministers have failed to explain why.

This fits with what the Government believes
The Government has a failing economy on its hands. Growth was flat-lining, now we’re in a double-dip recession. The Institute of Directors, the Confederation of British Industry and large parts of the Conservative Party’s explanation for this is that workers have too many rights.

Many Tories privately back the Beecroft Report to make it easier to fire people, and get rid of parental leave, which they say will reduce unemployment. They want to expand Britain’s already rigid anti-trade union laws. They keep bringing forward private members’ bills to scrap the minimum wage, and top advisers’ pet projects include scrapping maternity leave and consumer rights.

Apparently completely separately, the Government’s work strategy just happens to involve lots of people working for free, or for under the minimum wage, with no employment rights, and a receding welfare state. Coincidence?

About the author
Jon is an occasional contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. He blogs at The Red Rock
· Other posts by Jon Stone


Story Filed Under: Blog ,Economy

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48. Anthony Woods-Waters

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90. SoapboxL

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93. Shame Them

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100. Greville Matthews

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104. BevR

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109. ewandaslasher

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111. Katherine Smith

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112. Jan Tchamani

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113. Chris Schofield

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117. IRejectFPTP

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123. Richard Truscott

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124. Ivan Jordan

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