Employment and Skills, Jobs, Recruitment, Skills, Welfare to Work

Tesco Says JCP made mistake

Tesco Says JCP made mistake

Yesterday’s Tesco workfare twitterstorm, which I was a part of – tweeting, retweeting and asking the Guardian to investigate – has brought into sharp focus the question of should major corporations  have to pay people on their night shift or can they leave it to the tax payer?

A Jobcentre Plus advert indicated that Tesco was looking for Nightshift workers on “JSA + Expenses.” . See the advert here Tesco says it was a mistake on JCP’s part. It should have been an advert for work experience with a guaranteed job interview.

As someone who helps people get back to work, I know that recent work experience  can certainly help you secure a job. And projects Like Marks and Start, on which I worked, are fantastic examples of big organisations offering people the chance to find out about working in retail. But does that make it legitimate for a major corporation to use people on benefits to stack their shelves at night for the cost of a bus pass. I say No.

I think that the Welfare to Work community needs to get to grips with the difference between  Work Experience and Exploitation. As well as being right morally, it makes sense. We mainly work with people who need entry level jobs, if those jobs start to disappear because people have to work for free then  our people will be further away from work. Not closer.

Read more here

The TelegraphTesco moves to calm Twitter row

The Guardian Work for free and ‘be of benefit’ to a multinational like Tesco

Liz Sewell
Take Three Days

2 Comments

  1. Sally, your local Job Centre is wrong – he can volunteer for a local commercial business. Go to directgov and download the jobcentreplus brochure on volunteering. It’s an interesting read – and amazing how many Job Centre staff appear not to have read it as they often give out incorrect advice.

  2. This has just made me see red! My company gave my son a similar offer last summer – we hosted him as he volunteered for a few days over a few weeks, to support a community group. He has just received a bill from JCP for £600 of mis-paid benefits which they determine is the value of what he should have received in wages. Their position is – volunteering into a commercial firm is not allowed.
    I can’t understand how Tescos can get away with this for exploitative purposes and we (my son) is fined for doing the same thing

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