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February 17th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda - Supermarket blame ‘IT error’ for the blunder
- Campaigners accuse supermarket of cashing in on people’s misery
By
Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:41 AM on 17th February 2012
Tesco was accused of exploiting the jobless yesterday after advertising for unpaid nightshift workers.
A vacancy appeared online for the ‘permanent’ role stating that the applicant would receive only Jobseekers’ Allowance plus expenses.
The role is one of hundreds of unpaid positions adopted by the supermarket as part of the Government’s controversial ‘workfare scheme’.
No pay: The job is advertised in East Anglia for jobseeker’s allowance plus expenses only
Last night the supermarket said the listing on the Jobcentre Plus website, which prompted a backlash from Twitter and Facebook users, was posted in error.
The workfare programme is designed to tackle the long-term unemployed by committing them to accept the offer of a job or work experience and providing financial incentives to employers. If jobseekers refuse to take part, they could lose benefit payments.
But activists have accused Tesco of ‘cashing in on misery’ as the UK’s unemployment rate soars. Sam James, of campaign group Right to Work, said: ‘This is another example of working-class people being forced to pay for a crisis created by the greed of the rich.’
The position advertised by Tesco was for a worker at a store in East Anglia.
‘Benefits plus expenses’: Tesco sparked fury by advertising for unpaid nightshift workers
Several high street names, including Waterstones and Sainsbury’s, have pulled out of the workfare scheme after trade unions branded the use of unpaid workers ‘unfair’.
Chris Grayling: Hopes the back to work scheme will help cut Britain’s £100bn benefits bill
The GMB said it was ‘essential to maintain the distinction between employment and unemployment’, adding: ‘Employment means getting paid for doing work that the employer needs to be done. There is absolutely no justification for using jobless people to do these jobs and paying them nothing.’
Applicants for the unpaid jobs are paid the standard rates of Jobseekers’ Allowance – £53.45 a week for under-25s, £67.50 for older staff. If they refuse to complete the work they risk losing their benefits.
Tesco insisted it was not using the unpaid workers to replace full-time staff.
It said: ‘The advert is a mistake caused by an IT error by Jobcentre Plus and is being rectified. It is an advert for work experience with a guaranteed job interview at the end of it as part of a Government-led work experience scheme.’
The company defended its involvement in the work experience scheme, and said that so far 300 young people had won permanent jobs after placements.
It added: ‘In general, Tesco staff receive a higher level of basic pay than any other supermarket, without exception.’
Usdaw, a union that represents more than 400,000 workers in high street stores, said it was in discussions with retailers about their involvement in such controversial schemes.
It said that work experience could be valuable, but should come with a reasonable wage.
Employment Minister Chris Grayling told the Commons last month that the scheme was working well.
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How disgusting are these big companies? they rake in HUGE profits, and cream money off of Govt schemes like this, and then expect NIGHT workers to work for job seekers (probably less than minimum wage) yet when they get caught it was an “error”. Yeah right, an error because they got caught!
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So this scheme is increasing unemployment and hindering people who are trying to find work by wasting their time. Meanwhile the taxpayer pays Tescos wage bill. Nice one Cameron – you muppet.
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The ONLY jobs the unemployed should be doing to help them get back into the ethics of working is either public service work or work for the community. Also jailed people should not be allowed to work for private companies and should themselves be tagged and forced to do community work or public service work.
A bit of sense here….there are lots of the elderly that would love people giving them a hand to do some things.
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Right I am stopping shopping at Tesco’s, I will use Sainsburys instead as I have to shop somewhere, but I will try to use small local shops if I can a I think Sainsbury’s may be involved in similar schemes which can lead to sanctions. I will avoid shopping anywhere which is using people on these punitive schemes. I just need to know where there is a list of participants of these schemes..
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All it is doing is increasing unemployment – these companies no longer have to employ so many people, so instead of one on the dole, you now have two unemployed, with one of them working for nothing.
Brilliant.
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If people get money from the government they should work for the govt (cleaning parks, roads, schools, anything).
– KC, NYC, 17/2/2012 3:51
I’ll think you will find people are already employed by government (both local and national) to do these jobs, often via 3rd party private contractors. Job seekers are paid to actively seek work.
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Every Little Helps-the shareholders of Tesco
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Essentially the government (i.e the TAXPAYERS) will be funding the private companies payroll expenses.
If people get money from the government they should work for the govt (cleaning parks, roads, schools, anything). They should not be working for a privately owned business. That is WRONG. Businesses will not hire employees if they can get the government to force people to work for these private businesses. The private companies should have to pay the government for all this free work they will be getting. They certainly don’t share their profits with the government and the taxpayers
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Wouldn’t some sort of training be more useful instead of slave labour? Retrain or lose benefit. Sounds fair.
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This has the double benefit for the companies that are shamefully exploiting people in this way. Firstly they benefit from slave labour. Secondly by keeping the unemployment figures high, wages are also kept low. Again shameful.
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