Returning to Workfare.
If you get the opportunity, do watch BBC's This Week on iPlayer. I summarize the piece by Michelin-starred chef, Michel Roux.
I wonder if that is why they don't want to get off it?
Workfare is voluntary. My view is that after a six month period on benefits it should be compulsory. If they don't undertake (and stick with a programme) then benefits are reduced and eventually eliminated (within a further 6 months)
This isn't slavery - check your history books - how many slaves got paid for their labour? How many enjoyed taxpayer provided (and often subsidized), housing? Free healthcare, education, etc.?
This has been proven to work - in the USA for one - and needs to be more widely adopted, here.
If you get the opportunity, do watch BBC's This Week on iPlayer. I summarize the piece by Michelin-starred chef, Michel Roux.
Scene: Busy kitchen - camera on person washing up - Surprise, it's top chef, Michel Roux!
MR: This is where I started and worked for first year. This taught me respect.
Kids nowadays want instant success and this served on a plate. They forget that MR, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay all had to work hard to achieve their success.
They (kids) would rather be sat on benefits.
MR has taken on dozens of apprentices and they work for him for two years.
MR always looks for work experience - and it doesn't matter what it is - on a CV.
Work experience is not slave labour it gives kids valuable life skills and any work experience is invaluable.
MR believes there is an attitude problem and that is why jobs go to immigrants! Skill training includes 'getting off your backside'.
MR - Work experience can never take over from full time employees.
On the same piece, former government minister and politician, Michael Portillo pointed out that 10% of Americans start their working life 'flipping hamburgers' and the whole process of this type of work experience builds confidence. He also wondered why it was that in England, it is rare to see an English waiter and yet in Spain all waiters are Spanish. Some people think waiting on tables is beneath them?
MR (having hoped to have got kids off of their backsides) goes on to say that what kids need is tough love and maybe a kick-up the backside!
I wonder if that is why they don't want to get off it?
Workfare is voluntary. My view is that after a six month period on benefits it should be compulsory. If they don't undertake (and stick with a programme) then benefits are reduced and eventually eliminated (within a further 6 months)
This isn't slavery - check your history books - how many slaves got paid for their labour? How many enjoyed taxpayer provided (and often subsidized), housing? Free healthcare, education, etc.?
This has been proven to work - in the USA for one - and needs to be more widely adopted, here.
Personally, I am HUGELY in favour of this scheme, but very much against the way it is being ran.
ReplyDeleteI am in the unfortunate position of being unemployed since the start of December. This is the first time in the 10 years since college leaving college that I have been in such a position. The main thing that seems to be holding me back is the huge number of people applying for every position. (approx 20 per vacancy) So even with 10 years experience, I am struggling.
Recently, whilst waiting for an appointment at the job centre, I over heard a discussion between a job seeker and her advisor.
It appears that the job seeker had been off sick for a long period, but is now trying to get back into work. She appears to have made several efforts at doing so, and is also currently carrying out voluntary work to help boost up her experience and to improve the look of a CV with a large gap in it. Sounds admirable to me, and should have been left at that, whilst being given encouragement and assistance to find paid work. Did that happen? No. She was told she has to stop volunteering for a while, as she will be moved into working for free in the private sector as part of the new scheme, or her benefits would be stopped.
So who would actually be benefiting from this scheme there? Other than the huge corporation that gets some free labour, nobody.
I guess that with any system where bureacrats are involved, inefficiencies and an idiotic adherence to 'jobs-worth' policies, will always be there.
ReplyDeleteI do though believe that there is the potential of (and early results support this) great benefit to young unemployed and they can migrate from work experience into full employment.
At the end of the day;
This has not cost the taxpayer money - they pay benefit anyway Doesn't cost the young anything - they get expenses covered
Small cost to sponsor company is offset by 'free labour'
What's not to like?
Incidentally, don't forget that that the benefit to the corporation, of this 'free labour', if it translates to a bottom-line profit improvement, will boost Corporate Tax receipts for the UK Treasury.
What happens if you've got professional skills and/or experience but are unemployed? Surely, they can't ask unemployed professionals to stack shelves at Tesco or flip hamburgers at McD's just to keep their benefits?
ReplyDeleteThe idea that young people will necessarily "migrate into from work experience into full employment" is an egregious lie. It is impossible in a time of high unemployment that all workfare victims will be taken on. The inevitable result is downward pressure on wages, a climate of fear among paid employees and bullying in the workplace.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that Michel Roux and the rest of this vile coterie do not wish to invest in training - or to offer young people hope of a future. These chefs are the parasites on the tax payer, not the young people. Michel Roux, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey did not start their working lives unpaid. Their efforts were rewarded by a decent pay-packet. This salary allowed them to feel self-respect and gave them social status: allowing them to gain independence from parents and socialize with their peers, etc.
If young people have any real or perceived faults, the older generation who created the society in which they have been raised is to blame. Rather than being subject to character assassination, young people deserve to be given hope of a future even if this means financial sacrifice by employers. As it is, all that young people are being taught is subservience. And there is nothing worse for a man than to lose acquired habits of independence and to become PROUD of his slavery!
These Michelin-starred chefs are hypocrites and deserve to be cast out of society.