Bournemouth and Poole Anti Cuts Coalition (BPACC) activists descended on Bournemouth and Poole College today in a further protest as part of the nationwide protests against workfare scheduled for this week.
Activists allege that the collegehas a close business association with Working Links who are a major private contractor paid millions by the government to carry out the Work Programme.
I asked the college for an interview which was declined, however Mr Andrew Glatter, Strategic Lead: Marketing and Communications, did issue a statement:
“The Bournemouth and Poole College delivers the UK Government’s Work Program as a subcontractor to Working Links, and does not run mandatory work activity (work experience) schemes.
Working Link does not get paid for gaining work placement opportunities for its customers through the Work Programme, only for sustained employment. The driving factor for Working Links in securing unpaid placements for customers is as a route to full-time sustained employment.
Working Links work closely with the Department for Work and Pensions and employers to ensure jobseekers are not exploited and any placements benefit jobseekers.”
I though it only fair to give the demonstrators the opportunity to respond to the salient points of the statement.
Shelly Wilson, spokesperson for BPACC said “We are here today to leaflet about the government’s workfare program. A little while back we did discover an advertisement on the college website aimed at employers to use the unemployed as a ‘try before you buy’ hiring scheme but they have since changed their wording for this.
We did read a college press release stating that many people had been found jobs but our figures don’t bear this out. For instance Tesco have taken 1500 placements but only 300 have been offered jobs. In addition to this some jobs offered to Poole participants were actually down in Dorchester. Obviously this involves a substantial commute and may not be an option for people reliant on public transport given the 24 hour nature of Tesco’s operation; furthermore we believe workfare is part of a larger program of a government scheme to dismantle the welfare state. Workfare placements are not included in the governments unemployment statistics and this is a deliberate gerrymandering of the true numbers of unemployed in the UK.
There are large companies making substantial profits on this scheme and we discover
that when we talk to people at the jobcentres we are finding things like pregnant women with morning sickness being told to clean toilets or their benefits will be stopped or highly qualified accountants with over 20 years of experience being told to go an clear litter in a park. How can this be meaningful work experience.”
The demonstration passed off peacefully and without incident.
Graham Horne – Swanage
