Stores air work scheme concerns

21 February 2012 Last updated at 11:10 ET

Nick Clegg said the scheme would help protect the unemployed from loneliness and depression

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has dismissed criticism that a government work experience scheme amounts to "slave labour".

The "sector-based work academy scheme" allows people on unemployment benefit to work for firms and charities for a period without losing payments.

Critics claim large companies including Tesco are using it for cheap Labour.

But Mr Clegg said he had "no qualms", as the scheme had succeeded in getting many young people into permanent jobs.

He added that they could "retain their payment through their benefits".

The comments come on a day when the government has launched a separate £126m scheme which gives companies cash incentives to take on and train more teenagers with poor qualifications.

The number of 16 to 24-year-olds who are out of work has risen above one million for the first time, leading to concerns they could become a "lost generation" in employment terms.

The sector-based programme offers the long-term unemployed work experience or training, while providing financial incentives to employers. If jobseekers refuse to take part, they could lose benefit payments.

'Celebrate'

The scheme has attracted adverse publicity recently.

Tesco posted a job advert looking for permanent night-shift workers at its branch in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk, in exchange for jobseeker's allowance "plus expenses".

However, it removed this from the Jobseekers' Plus website after an outcry. The company said the advert had been placed due to an IT error.

Despite this, campaigners have continued to attack the government scheme, arguing that young people are effectively being coerced into joining it. Several companies and charities, including Sainsbury's, have pulled out.

But, in an interview with BBC political editor Nick Robinson, Mr Clegg said: "I think it is ridiculous when people condemn a programme of work experience which is helping hundreds if not thousands of young people to get into work.

"I think anyone who wants to condemn a scheme that helps people into work at a time of high unemployment really needs to think hard about their priorities. It is not slave labour. It is not compulsory. It is entirely voluntary."

Mr Clegg added: "It is very simple. We say to employers, 'Please take on these young people. We will pay them, through benefits, but could you please keep them on for a few weeks because it increases their chance of finding work'.

"Fifty per cent of youngsters on the work experience scheme so far have found permanent work. That is something that I celebrate. Other people might choose to condemn it. I don't."

Asked if he had any concerns about young people being asked to work a night shift stacking shelves in a supermarket for free, Mr Clegg said: "I have absolutely no qualms at all about the idea that rather than have a young person sitting at home, feeling cut off, lonely and getting depressed because they don't know what to do with their lives.

"It is better to give them the opportunity for a few weeks to actually work, and of course retain their payment through their benefits."

Meanwhile, Tesco has suggested to the Department of Work and Pensions that, to avoid any misunderstanding about the voluntary nature of the scheme, the risk of losing benefits that currently exists should be removed.

It has also announced that from now on any young person accepted for work experience with Tesco will be offered a choice.

'Excellent scheme'

They can either participate in the government's scheme, which protects their benefits for the duration of the four-week placement.

Or they can be paid by Tesco for the four-week placement, with a guaranteed permanent job at the end of it, provided they complete the placement satisfactorily.

Tesco UK's chief executive Richard Brasher said: "We know it is difficult for young people to give up benefits for a short-term placement with no permanent job at the end of it.

"So this guarantee that a job will be available provided the placement is completed satisfactorily, should be a major confidence boost for young people wanting to enter work on a permanent basis."

But a Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "We have a excellent scheme that we know is making a real difference to the job prospects of young people.

"Tesco have said that they are continuing to be a part of the government's work experience scheme. What they have also said is that there will be delivering an additional offer to young people that will help more people find permanent employment. That has to be a good thing."

22 Feb, 2012

-
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-politics-17116473
--
Manage subscription | Powered by rssforward.com