Vocal Voices

My sister in law's boyfriend is long term unemployed. He has and is trying to get a job. A couple of weeks ago he was set on at an Eddie Stobart depot as a fork lift driver; he was working the night shift.

Towards the end of the first week he came home and said he smelled a rat. Sure enough after just one and a bit week's work he's back on the dole. He was hired on as a fork lift driver along with several others. One night they got to work to find out that there were more fork lift truck drivers than there were trucks, so they had to load and unload pallets by hand over an eight hour shift, which is considerably more physical than driving a fork lift truck.

It turns out that the firm needed a few men to help out with a big delivery. When that spike in demand was over, back on the dole you go. This is the second time this has happened to him, he had the same stroke pulled on him before last Christmas.

This is no way to treat people, zero hours contracts should not exist in a civilised country. These men had their hopes lifted and thought they had a chance of actually getting a job, well they didn't.

This agency worker carry on may be very "good for business" but it's no use for anyone else.

In fact no job security, no worker's rights, low pay, poor holidays and zero hours contracts are all good for business. I wish someone was on the side of the ordinary worker because they just seem to be an expendable economic unit these days.

That's shameful, Cromwell. Nothing but exploitation, pure and simple. Says an awful lot about Eddie Stobarts, using such a scam.

I don't know if it's Stobart's Os, or if this is just general practice now. The same thing happened to him at a DHL warehouse. There is a government body called Interserve in the mix somewhere, who use agencies to place workers with firms; but the workers don't really know if it is going to be a full time job or not.

I suspect Stobarts, Interserve and the agencies all know full well but they just don't let on.

Cromwell, I am going to ask something, which might be a worry for those in similar situations.

Has his unemployment clock now been re-set? I know that he was only working for less than two weeks, but two weeks is a break nonetheless. Does he now go back to the bottom of the Jobcentre pile as far as work boost and training courses go? Has his, and others like him, bit of work enabled the long-term unemployed figures to be massaged?

It should be criminal to use such scams and Stobarts should be named and shamed.

Workingman wrote:Cromwell, I am going to ask something, which might be a worry for those in similar situations.

Has his unemployment clock now been re-set? I know that he was only working for less than two weeks, but two weeks is a break nonetheless. Does he now go back to the bottom of the Jobcentre pile as far as work boost and training courses go? Has his, and others like him, bit of work enabled the long-term unemployed figures to be massaged?

It should be criminal to use such scams and Stobarts should be named and shamed.

I don't know about the unemployment clock WM; I do know that he was expecting to go to work last night until he got a phone call at 3pm telling him that he'd been finished. So he's had to go back in to the Jobcentre / Interserve this morning to try and get his benefits sorted out; because as you've said there has been a break in his benefits payments so he has to establish asap with them when he started and finished work.

As to the employment figures, absolutely yes!

They just get treated badly. He's been told that he should be "going round shops asking if they need anyone" amongst other remarks.

It's like the old "day labour" scheme on the docks isn't it? We don't need you today so go home.

I think we are being feudalised in this country, bit by bit.

We are being feudalised, of that there is no doubt

I am really sorry for your SIL's boyfriend, the way he's been used is disgraceful

it's bloody slavery

heard Cameroon say on tv the other day --some people like to work zero hour contracts--really ???

Just found out a bit more. One of the men who worked with Dean was in his late 50's. The night they had to load and unload by hand he said to Dean "I can't to this, it's killing me!" only half in jest.

Thing is, he had to do it, because if you turn a job down you are deemed to have made yourself unemployed and your benefits get stopped.

At a slight tangent another man there was an educated eastern European who informed them that there was a nearby farm where all the workers were eastern European and who were being paid below minimum wage. Because a fair few of them were criminals and weren't in a position to complain!

All this is I suppose what is meant by having "a flexible workforce".

eta - I agree Vic and I suppose that back in the day slavery was also "good for business"! All those workers and you didn't even have to pay them.

ps - Dean had to ring a number at the job centre to tell them the job had finished. He did. Nobody answered the phone, he used all the credit on the phone so he had to go in and see them.

Appalling. Honestly, when I first started in the workforce, in the late 70s, I would never have dreamed that in the second decade of the next century employers would be able to treat people this way?

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

I am thinking that Dean, in trying to do the right thing, will have to be processed all over again. Why?

Well in my experience the Jobcentre is damn quick to offload you as soon as, but when it comes to getting you back in the system it can take weeks, even months. Will the agency who knowingly put Dean in this position be barred from using the Jobcentre site? No chance! Will Stobart? No chance?