European Tribune - Community, Politics & Progress.

Role of unions to support unemployed back to work

by In Wales
Tue Sep 2nd, 2008 at 05:53:38 AM EST

Local Employment Partnerships explains how union reps can work with employers and Jobcentre Plus (JCP) to help the long-term unemployed back into work through welfare schemes, such as 'work trials' and the 'jobs pledge'.
The guidance is published nearly a year after the Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the 'jobs pledge' at Congress in September 2007 and asked trade unions to help achieve this target saying; 'Today I am proposing... that we work together to fast-track British workers into jobs we know exist.'
The 'jobs pledge' aims to find work for a quarter of a million people who face extra barriers to the labour market, such as lone parents and disabled people. The guidance encourages unions to help sign more companies up to the 'jobs pledge' and points out that many of the companies that have already signed up recognise unions.

The same jobs pledge that raised concerns about people who genuinely cannot work being forced into employment and having benefits cut if they did not do so; or being forced to take jobs that were unsuitable for them and opened them up to exploitation.

Further TUC guidance Work Trials - a briefing for union reps explains how unions can encourage more people into 'work trials' - four to six week work experience placements, paid at the weekly dole rate, also designed for 'hard-to-reach' groups.
However, the guidance also warns that these 'hard-to-reach' groups can potentially be exploited by unscrupulous employers to undercut their rivals by using work trial temps as an alternative to fully paid staff. The TUC guidance warns these tactics will hurt honest employers, threaten existing workers' jobs and serve no benefit to those who desperately need to get back into work.

Well, that's the problem. The initiative is good in principle. For those who want to work and can work but face additional barriers in trying to return to the labour market, gaining useful work experience is vital to providing a route into the labour market after possibly many years of exclusion.

But the scheme can so easily be abused by unscrupulous employers trying to undercut their competitors by employing people on work trials at the tax payers cost. This kind of working practice already exists with migrant workers being exploited in a similar way.

I think the principle of having unions involved with this scheme is a good one, since they can be on hand to identify and report dodgy practice but the workplaces where workers are treated badly are the ones most likely to not be unionised.

Are there any similar back to work schemes elsewhere in Europe?

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Role of unions to support unemployed back to work | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Role of unions to support unemployed back to w (4.00 / 4)

There's a particular UK problem here, in that Britain, from the mid-eighties through the 'nineties, developed a mass dumping-ground for the long-term unemployed in the Incapacity Benefit rolls (see Soundbite Statistics). It was a great wheeze as long as it lasted, because it allowed the government to claim amazing results on the employment scene (IB beneficiaries are not counted as officially unemployed), and, especially, to have got rid of... long-term unemployment.

It couldn't be hidden for ever, though. The OECD, usually so full of praise for the UK's competitive economy, has done some repeated finger-wagging about it, and under Broon of the Manse the government decided to get some "back-to-work" stuff going. See that nonsense about "fast-tracking" people into jobs "we know exist". The problem is that most of the long-term unemployed on IB are in wiped-out former industrial regions where the jobs don't exist - and these are mostly people whose financial and psychological energy won't run to a relocation in South-East England. Thirty years of concentration of the economy on London, aka the Anglo Disease, have taken their toll. The way to get people "back to work", is to create jobs they can realistically take on where they are.

When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind

by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Tue Sep 2nd, 2008 at 06:41:47 AM EST

Re: Role of unions to support unemployed back to w (4.00 / 4)

And one of the barriers to that is that most of the best and the brightest of my generation of once-young Northerners are no longer there.

I left with my family as a child, but my ex-husband (aged 41) remained until he went to university at 18. There are people from his class at school who have never had a job. I met him at university, and we would have liked to go back to the area in which we were both born once I graduated, but there was no possibility of that.

It may possibly be a little melodramatic to put it in those terms, but effectively our generation were economic refugees within our own country.

by Sassafras on Tue Sep 2nd, 2008 at 10:10:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Role of unions to support unemployed (4.00 / 2)

<snark> Maybe you should change your title to Role of unions to support unemployed back to work, as explained by Palin, maybe then you will get some more comments. </snark>

Sorry, I can not add much to the discussion, as I am not very knowledgeable about unions. Maybe I should be ashamed as my grandfather was very active Union member. But I guess, being self-employed my challenges are of a different kind.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Sep 2nd, 2008 at 10:10:35 AM EST

Re: Role of unions to support unemployed (none / 1)

Say you were unemployed and actively seeking work in your home town, what would be available to you? eg Careers advice, benefit schemes, work placements, free skills training?

Ad astra per aspera

by In Wales (inwales aaat eurotrib.com) on Tue Sep 2nd, 2008 at 10:22:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Role of unions to support unemployed (4.00 / 2)

I would have to research that, I have no idea, as it was never a topic for me.

Though I had some clients who were out of work and got some skill training to make them easier employable. They got help with writing cv's and some coaching for how to present themselves when going for an meeting with the potential employer. I am sure there is more, but I do not know what that all includes in detail.

by Fran (fran at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Sep 2nd, 2008 at 10:35:21 AM EST
[ Parent ]

govt says flog the workshy. (4.00 / 2)

Is the union work being done for free, as in does the govt expect unions to subsidize these initiatives ? Is there an overall management of the scheme ? Or is it being run out of job centres who are just allocating people haphazardly without any care or consideration for skills matching ?

So, let me guess ? This is a targets-based scheme entirely without reference to actual need or employment in the area. Usual nu-lab bs.

Ah yes, the jobs we know are out there. Picking cockles in morcambe bay perchance ?? Taking people from incapacity and sending them to E Anglia to pick vegetables and fruit. All for sixpence threefarthings every fortnight.

And what about all the builders who are out of work cos the government completely fials to utiulize the opportunity to build social; housing where it's needed. How about kicking employment out of london ? How about moving the civil service out of london ? The military ?

Why the f---- is everything in this country in London ? Why is The Gord such a total tosser ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Tue Sep 2nd, 2008 at 10:38:49 AM EST

Re: Role of unions to support unemployed (none / 0)

I am not understanding why the TUC wants to believe the 'jobs pledge' now, if it wasn't worthy a year ago. It doesn't even sound practicable and there is very little in it for the union:

points out that many of the companies that have already signed up(,) recognise unions.

That pretty much says they have not unionized any new companies, so they may barely gain new membership, that threatens its current members´ jobs with temporary jobs at cut-rate wages?

I´m not up-to-date on union ´schemes´ in Spain, but I know this spring, when the word ´crisis´ came up and someone said wages should be held down, the two major unions came out together saying

´just as soon as the construction magnates that created this bubble lower their wages!´

Our knowledge has surpassed our wisdom. --Charu Saxena.

by metavision on Thu Sep 4th, 2008 at 04:17:02 PM EST

Role of unions to support unemployed back to work | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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