The Jobbridge Scandal

snubbleste

November 2013
6174 people on Jobbridge
6849 on Tús

Under Show Annex - Live Register Activation Programmes http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/lr/liveregisterdecember2013/

Xios

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn2n_2R09ng&feature=youtu.be

Not sure if it's been posted yet, popped up on facebook

dpofloinn

What are they protesting about? Is it the idea that the government have hired an external agency to help people find long term work or is it the idea that they may have to get a job and work for a living?

PaddyORuadhan

Do you have any idea of the history of this company? It has been involved in countless scandals around the world and in particular recently in the UK. This company is all about profit making and would use this foothold in Ireland in enriching itself by providing cheap labour it got from dole queues.

Is this the type of 'recovery' or 'job' creation you want in this country?

Eight Ball

Xios wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn2n_2R09ng&feature=youtu.be

Not sure if it's been posted yet, popped up on facebook

Incredible that this sort of stuff is going on. Of course you wont see or hear anything about these protests in main stream or state sponsored media as they are some of the biggest exploiters of jobbridge.

sligoface

dpofloinn wrote: »

What are they protesting about? Is it the idea that the government have hired an external agency to help people find long term work or is it the idea that they may have to get a job and work for a living?

Did you watch the video? Because it sounds like you don't get it. This is not helping people find long term work, it is designd to make people work for basically the same rate as the dole, not even minimum wage. Meaning companies will not have to create actual jobs where they pay a wage, they get a slave from the government. It will kill job creation and lower wages. I'm assuming you are working and have a resentful attitude because you think your taxes are used to pay for people on the dole and maybe you would be delighted if they were forced to work. But would you be happy if you were let go and replaced by a free labour slave or forced to take a pay cut because the company has the option of free labour? These schemes do not benefit the unemployed, or the employed.
If we allow these schemes to continue to emerge every year, there is no point in having a minimum wage at all as it will be meaningless.

dpofloinn

sligoface wrote: »

Did you watch the video? Because it sounds like you don't get it. This is not helping people find long term work, it is designd to make people work for basically the same rate as the dole, not even minimum wage. Meaning companies will not have to create actual jobs where they pay a wage, they get a slave from the government. It will kill job creation and lower wages. I'm assuming you are working and have a resentful attitude because you think your taxes are used to pay for people on the dole and maybe you would be delighted if they were forced to work. But would you be happy if you were let go and replaced by a free labour slave or forced to take a pay cut because the company has the option of free labour? These schemes do not benefit the unemployed, or the employed.
If we allow these schemes to continue to emerge every year, there is no point in having a minimum wage at all as it will be meaningless.

Yes I watched the video hence the question 'what are they protesting about?' No where in the video did they explain the ramifications of G4S involvement with social welfare.All I saw was 'professional' protesters protesting something without any real explanation.Anyone care to enlighten me?

I probably would be delighted if they where Forced to work as you call it,they might then have a good reason to protest.Some of them are so work shy id say if there was work in the bed they'd sleep on the floor.

I did take a pay reduction and eventually let go and replaced by free labour,but I didnt piss and moan about it I pulled my finger out and educated myself and set up my own business,which thankfully is doing ok despite the current market

The min wage is already pointless,it became pointless the day it was introduced as prices also increased in line with wage increases

Xenji

dpofloinn wrote: »

Yes I watched the video hence the question 'what are they protesting about?' No where in the video did they explain the ramifications of G4S involvement with social welfare.All I saw was 'professional' protesters protesting something without any real explanation.Anyone care to enlighten me?

I probably would be delighted if they where Forced to work as you call it,they might then have a good reason to protest.Some of them are so work shy id say if there was work in the bed they'd sleep on the floor.

I did take a pay reduction and eventually let go and replaced by free labour,but I didnt piss and moan about it I pulled my finger out and educated myself and set up my own business,which thankfully is doing ok despite the current market

The min wage is already pointless,it became pointless the day it was introduced as prices also increased in line with wage increases

Go back and read through this thread and inform yourself of what is actually happening with this scheme and how it is affecting people, you obviously are completely missing the point.

Grandpa Hassan

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

if they have now taken on an employee then there is a job. I doubt there wasn't plenty of people qualified to do it even if the person that got it through job bridge wasn't that person. All that has happened is the company have managed to avoid paying the person for the first 9 months. It artificially propping up a private business, possibly to the detriment of a rival company that doesn't get free labour. The government has basically given the company a grant of €13,500 ( if it's a min wage job, more depending on what the job pays).

There is a job now. Doesn't mean there was a job then. A lot of assumptions there used to bash jobbridge when this may well be an example of how it is intended to work

Tesco, civil service etc shouldn't be using it. But if it helps a small company to expand (when it otherwise wouldn't have done if the owner couldn't risk taking on a full time salaried employee in this uncertain market) thereby creating a job, then IMO opinion, in this instance, it has worked perfectly. A win win. For the state. For the new employee. And, yes, for the private owner.

sligoface

dpofloinn wrote: »

I did take a pay reduction and eventually let go and replaced by free labour,but I didnt piss and moan about it I pulled my finger out and educated myself and set up my own business,which thankfully is doing ok despite the current market

So you lost your job and was replaced by free labour and you are still in favor of free labour schemes? Why? Do you plan on using one for your business? I don't see how any one who lost their job to a slave could be in favor of it.

Well done on starting a business, and it's great that it is doing ok, but do you think most people can afford to do this? Education is also becoming harder and harder for people to afford.

Where I live so many shops and businesses have closed and after the business failed, the people who owned them couldn't just go and start a new one, because they had so much debt. As for the workers, if one business employing say five people, could not be sustained, and the business either closes or to stay open they have to replace all the workers with free labour, obviously those five people could not all go start their own business and have it survive.

I hate when people say that people stuck on the dole just need to 'get the finger out', not realizing how many obstacles there can be: lack of education, lack of transport, lack of funds to relocate for a job offer, and now, the biggest one this country has is these ridiculous slave labor schemes.

If people who want to work are unable to find it, they are entitled to have something to live on while they job search, and should not be forced into slave labour. If they are going to be forced, than they should be protesting about it. I guess you think all the African Americans marching during the Civil rights movement were just 'pissin and moanin'?

dpofloinn

Xenji wrote: »

Go back and read through this thread and inform yourself of what is actually happening with this scheme and how it is affecting people, you obviously are completely missing the point.

I was under the impression that this thread highlighted abuses of the jobsbridge scheme,but my question was and still is what exactly are G4S going to be doing that will 'enslave a nation'? To which the only replies I have received are telling me im missing the point.As far as im concerned no points have been made as reguards G4S so how can I be missing the point?

I've said it before and ill say it again. In a few years its going to be the norm to work a full 40 hour week for your €188 +€50. Businesses are relishing the opportunity to exploit cheap labour and the government are loving that it allows them to massage the unemployment figures and give the impression that they've actually done something.

dpofloinn

sligoface wrote: »

So you lost your job and was replaced by free labour and you are still in favor of free labour schemes? Why? Do you plan on using one for your business? I don't see how any one who lost their job to a slave could be in favor of it.

Well done on starting a business, and it's great that it is doing ok, but do you think most people can afford to do this? Education is also becoming harder and harder for people to afford.

Where I live so many shops and businesses have closed and after the business failed, the people who owned them couldn't just go and start a new one, because they had so much debt. As for the workers, if one business employing say five people, could not be sustained, and the business either closes or to stay open they have to replace all the workers with free labour, obviously those five people could not all go start their own business and have it survive.

I hate when people say that people stuck on the dole just need to 'get the finger out', not realizing how many obstacles there can be: lack of education, lack of transport, lack of funds to relocate for a job offer, and now, the biggest one this country has is these ridiculous slave labor schemes.

If people who want to work are unable to find it, they are entitled to have something to live on while they job search, and should not be forced into slave labour. If they are going to be forced, than they should be protesting about it. I guess you think all the African Americans marching during the Civil rights movement were just 'pissin and moanin'?

Firstly when did I say I was in favour of slave labour? I have just about enough work to keep me going and if I was in a position to take someone on it wouldnt be via any scheme

Secondly I didnt generalise that statement I said that I got the finger out and I am very well aware of the obstacles that are there when you try to improve your situation

Thirdly I guess its easier to brand me a racist/biggot/slaver than answer my very simple question.What are G4S planning on doing that warrants a protest?

I'm doing a FAS course atm and it involves 3 months of work experience. For the 3 months we get no add on to our payment and are expected to pay for travel expenses, lunch, etc out if it. Many if the placements are 20-40 miles from where people are living and as such the cost of travel alone is huge. I know one of the placements will involve a €15 per day bus ticket if the person can't organise a lift. Even with a lift you'd be expected to pay €30 or so a week

We were told that on our placement to expect to be making tea, getting lunch for people a do the work that no one else will. When we mentioned about people on jobsbridge be made wash cars, collect the bosses kids from a school, pick up the bosses weekly shopping, etc. we were told that if that's what the boss or staff wanted we wee to do it. We keep getting told that there's a great chance if a job at the end of it and that we need to show the boss that he needs us and has to create a position for us. We've asked a number of the businesses where people will be placed and all if them have said that they are only taking people on for the three months as it costs them nothing

mikhail

PaddyORuadhan wrote: »

Do you have any idea of the history of this company? It has been involved in countless scandals around the world and in particular recently in the UK. This company is all about profit making and would use this foothold in Ireland in enriching itself by providing cheap labour it got from dole queues.

Is this the type of 'recovery' or 'job' creation you want in this country?

Foothold in Ireland? You know they have thousands of employees here already?

tayto lover

It's still all about profits and making the big men successful at the expense of the poor and unemployed.
Government, I.S.M.E. and I.B.E.C. hang your heads in shame at what you are doing to your fellow citizens.

Guy:Incognito

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

There is a job now. Doesn't mean there was a job then. A lot of assumptions there used to bash jobbridge when this may well be an example of how it is intended to work

Tesco, civil service etc shouldn't be using it. But if it helps a small company to expand (when it otherwise wouldn't have done if the owner couldn't risk taking on a full time salaried employee in this uncertain market) thereby creating a job, then IMO opinion, in this instance, it has worked perfectly. A win win. For the state. For the new employee. And, yes, for the private owner.

What if a rival company that didn't get free help has closed since?

B.A._Baracus

mother frackin' jobsbridge!!!! Urgh!!!!!!

I spent 9 months doing a college course in 2013 re-skilling. Finished shortly before Christmas so its now to start applying for jobs. One tiny little problem tho .... jobsbridge :rolleyes:

Only a few jobs listed in my field on jobs.ie - all wanting you have to have at least 3 years experience and everything under the sun. But lovely ol' jobsbridge has loads of internships....

Love the way they are all at least 9 months and generally all full time. Get as much out of you as possible :rolleyes: But its funny. If I do an internship I am still not "qualified" for what most willing-to-pay you employers want.

cloudatlas

Maybe we should be directing our comments to this address

Contact Joan:

Department of Social Protection
Minister’s Office
Aras Mhic Dhiarmada, Store Street, Dublin 1.
Telephone (01) 7043000.
Email: minister@welfare.ie

Constituency Office
Dáil Eireann, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Telephone (01) 6184006.
Fax: (01) 7043869.
Email: constituency.office@welfare.ie

Xenji

cloudatlas wrote: »

Maybe we should be directing our comments to this address

Contact Joan:

Department of Social Protection
Minister’s Office
Aras Mhic Dhiarmada, Store Street, Dublin 1.
Telephone (01) 7043000.
Email: minister@welfare.ie

Constituency Office
Dáil Eireann, Leinster House, Kildare Street, Dublin 2.
Telephone (01) 6184006.
Fax: (01) 7043869.
Email: constituency.office@welfare.ie

She would probably just get some poor intern to read them and take notes :pac:

shockwave

The minister couldnt give a fcuk, Its all abut getting people off the live register and massaging the figures so the government looks good.

Then they can say 'Oh look everybody the dole figures are down'

cloudatlas

Xenji wrote: »

She would probably just get some poor intern to read them and take notes :pac:

I agree but it's no skin off my nose taking the time to lodge a complaint.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Xenji

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

he Government’s new strategy to deal with the masses of people still in need of work sees a dozen international “welfare to work” companies paid a bounty per head to put pressure on the unemployed to take more workfare style jobs.

Companies like the multinational security firm G4S, the world's 3rd largest employer, have already expressed an interest in this new "market" in the poor.

G4S supplies security equipment and services for use at Israeli prisons, checkpoints and settlements in the West Bank. In 2007, the Israeli subsidiary of G4S signed a contract with the Israeli Prison Authority to provide security systems for major Israeli prisons.

Companies like G4S, Serco and A4e will have the right to set their own prices and fees for "progressing" the unemployed.

The new “Jobpath” scheme is a continuation of the Government’s authoritarian and conservative approach to unemployment which has entailed punishing the poor with the threat of cutting off your dole if you don’t accept working for less than the minimum wage.

The EU and IMF had demanded more penalties for the poor if they refuse to accept this “activation” before they left. They may be gone but pleasing them still seems high on the Government’s agenda.

This new scheme basically places a bounty on the head of everyone on the dole and hands a private firm public cash to hunt them down and put them to work for nothing but their dole and a little extra.

Just as with Jobbridge this scheme also undermines the wages of workers as a whole and should be opposed by everyone employed or unemployed.

This is the start of a Thatcherite privatisation of welfare.

http://www.swp.ie/content/fine-gael-labour-pay-private-firms-bounty-unemployed

Anyone have anymore articles on this.

Things are going to get an awful lot worse for anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves unemployed. Li know a lot of people will say otherwise but these schemes amount to little more than slave labour. Working a full 40 hour week for your dole plus €50 is not a way to live. All it does is further add to the pressure that those out of work suffer under and these companies and schemes exist simply to further exploit people.

Businesses and the government are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of just how easily they can a use the unemployed. Minimum wage is now around €6 an hour though for many it's even lower give that many business are having jobsbridge applicants work 50+ hour weeks. This country is well and truly finished and there's no light in the horizon as this government would happily have all the unemployed sweeping the streets if it meant that they could look good in Europe.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Fred Swanson

Fred Swanson wrote: »

There will be a day soon when all the functions of the DSP for the unemployed will be outsourced to the likes of G4S even with in house deciding officers so there would be no need to ever refer a non cooperative person back to the DSP for sanctions.

A natural progression would be to tag the unemployed so they can monitor instantly where they are at all times.

Once companies such as GS4 get a foot into running how unemployed people are treated is the day when mass homelessness and crime will skyrocket. GS4 and its ilk exist to squeeze the most out if people for as little as possible. Say no to them and you'll end up with nothing and no way to feed or house yourself.

I'm looking at emigrating as soon as possible as I'm really just disgusted by how this country is going down the toilet. Looking for work and all I can see are jobsbridge positions in businesses where more than the minimum wage should be paid. It's disheartening and will result in serious issues for the country in the years to come. There simply won't be enough tax payers to keep the country and its people running.

P_1

Sweet jeebus, when will the government learn that privitising social related services is just not particularly smart. we've seen it happen in healthcare afterall

taytothief

It may have been mentioned, but Baxter in Castlebar are looking for jobsbridge interns. Baxter. A company with revenues of 14 billion dollars last year.

taytothief

taytothief wrote: »

It may have been mentioned, but Baxter in Castlebar are looking for jobsbridge interns. Baxter. A company with revenues of 14 billion dollars last year.

Hollister in Ballina recently advertised positions on the site. All the big businesses as well as the small ones are abusing the system and simply not hiring on new staff as they can get people for free.