The Jobbridge Scandal

Xenji

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.

They have taken on quite a few, thats after letting go of over 100 staff at the start of December, the feeling among most in town is that they will not last here much longer anyway, funny thing is, they could actually stay in town, let go of all the staff by offering voluntary redundancy and then replace them all with interns, as due to the companies size they can hire a unlimited amount and would not be breaking any rules.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

dxhound2005

Xenji wrote: »

They have taken on quite a few, thats after letting go of over 100 staff at the start of December, the feeling among most in town is that they will not last here much longer anyway, funny thing is, they could actually stay in town, let go of all the staff by offering voluntary redundancy and then replace them all with interns, as due to the companies size they can hire a unlimited amount and would not be breaking any rules.

Someone else posted before that their sister worked in a place where there were more Jobbridge people than regular employees. I posted the information below to point out that it wasn't possible. They never came back to prove otherwise. Now you say that a company can have an unlimited number of Jobbridge and you are even suggesting that all the employees can be replaced by Jobbridge. Are you sure about that?

Host organisations may offer internships on the following basis:

 1-10 employees = 1 placement
 11-20 employees = 2 placements
 21-30 employees = 3 placements
 30+ employees = 20% of workforce to a maximum of 200

tayto lover

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Someone else posted before that their sister worked in a place where there were more Jobbridge people than regular employees. I posted the information below to point out that it wasn't possible. They never came back to prove otherwise. Now you say that a company can have an unlimited number of Jobbridge and you are even suggesting that all the employees can be replaced by Jobbridge. Are you sure about that?

Host organisations may offer internships on the following basis:

 1-10 employees = 1 placement
 11-20 employees = 2 placements
 21-30 employees = 3 placements
 30+ employees = 20% of workforce to a maximum of 200

It is a disgrace that the Government are allowing big companies with huge profits to use free labour.
Any statistics regarding the numbers who have actually been given a job after their internship?

Xenji

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Someone else posted before that their sister worked in a place where there were more Jobbridge people than regular employees. I posted the information below to point out that it wasn't possible. They never came back to prove otherwise. Now you say that a company can have an unlimited number of Jobbridge and you are even suggesting that all the employees can be replaced by Jobbridge. Are you sure about that?

Host organisations may offer internships on the following basis:

 1-10 employees = 1 placement
 11-20 employees = 2 placements
 21-30 employees = 3 placements
 30+ employees = 20% of workforce to a maximum of 200

It used to be unlimited over 30+, they must of changed it recently, they changed quite a few things like scrapping the cooling off period and letting you do up to two 9 month internships. I wonder though would this be per factory, store, franchise ect....or just 200 for the overall company, the council I work in has over 30 at any given time and most of the other councils are the same, so you would have more than 200 at any one time.

dxhound2005

Xenji wrote: »

It used to be unlimited over 30+, they must of changed it recently, they changed quite a few things like scrapping the cooling off period and letting you do up to two 9 month internships. I wonder though would this be per factory, store, franchise ect....or just 200 for the overall company, the council I work in has over 30 at any given time and most of the other councils are the same, so you would have more than 200 at any one time.

http://www.jobbridge.ie/employereligible.aspx

•Local branch offices of national organisations will not be regarded as an individual host organisation for the purpose of the internship, e.g. large retail outlet

There are plenty of details available for numbers who got jobs out of Jobbridge, I don't want to look up everything for everybody.

For those suggesting that it is just a dole figures massaging exercise I would suggest that it is a very poor one. There are only ever less than 2% of the numbers on the dole on Jobbridge at any time.

Xenji

dxhound2005 wrote: »

http://www.jobbridge.ie/employereligible.aspx

For those suggesting that it is just a dole figures massaging exercise I would suggest that it is a very poor one. There are only ever less than 2% of the numbers on the dole on Jobbridge at any time.

It makes national news and is always the first news story if unemployment drops by even 0.1%, Labour harp on by how much they have decreased unemployment, but that 2.0% is the figure they are using, but yet these people are still unemployed, so it is actually a big deal.

confuseddotcom

I've always been in favour of JobBridge because of the concept that it is "Interning." Effectively, you're supposed to be getting on-the-job training, for eg. in the line of Office work, some Companies outsource all of their Accounts work and / or Payroll / H.R. stuff so there is never a chance given to work with some aspects, where-as as an Intern in an Accounts Dept. you will learn so much more than any employed person may do because you're only "viewed" per se as being in training like, so that's why I'm all for it, once they utilize ya in a way that you'll be learning. It's a great opportunity when done right and utilized correctly.

I know it's very tough going out to work every day and it not being a money-maker but only way to think of it as anything good coming out of it is that it's experience and something to add to the CV, and at least the top-up can go towards petrol if living a good distance away.

It's bloody difficult having to get up out the bed every morning and know you're not getting paid for it, but it's getting easier to do! If one wasn't working out I'd happily try a few others. I know the Set-up and whole process is perceived as diabolical, Positions could do with a lot more variety etc. etc. etc. But only thing is to find someone willing to take you on. It is free slave-labour after all! Or give a similar role a try even. There is half-decent ones out there, like a lot of things, it requires some weeding-out.

If anyone wants to say they would prefer to do a bit of shovelling or sell Burgers I'm sure they will be very well-received. :pac: God knows the roads are in a bad state and need all the help they can get, and Fast-Food-Joints always need more hands so I'm sure ye'll be welcome in either role. Or alternatively, ~Find Something To Do!~ It's nothing more than Volunteering like but it can be good experience. It's certainly not benefitting the Country in the main scheme of things anyway, which only means it ends up being in the way and being a hindrance as a result more than anything else.

Maybe attitude has a lot to do with things as well. Because so many are used to getting paid to sit at home, this is known as Free Labour, but, this is as good as it gets. It's something! It's not €12 an hour or anything like that, but it's still something! And, it might be perceived a WHOLE lot differently if we weren't getting paid to sit at home!!

Ideally, in an ideal world, if it was set up efficiently, effectively, correctly, EVERYONE looking for work should have to do a JobBridge for six months, give it a try anyway. A couple more euro to make it feel like a right job would be nice but then needing more money is never gonna change! There shouldn't be any outlet for reasons why not to do it!!! Everyone looking for work should have to give it a try. Sometimes when one of the Managers pokes the phone into my wrist and says Here Answer This! - I wonder am I doing the right thing by being here, afterall, I'm not a Dog they're playing Fetch with!! But, it's worth a try anyway, if things go downhill will try another one!

Ideally, it would be great if there was a system in place i.m.o., whereby all the efforts one makes to better themselves is acknowledged and in some way awarded accordingly. Be it Courses, Volunteering, Schemes, etc. I don't know how it would work best, monetary value, some system of Credits, Extras like Petrol and Other Costs I don't know how...... But there definitely seriously needs to be an operating system for the Scheme put in place that is well-balanced and smooth-flowing.

The main thing I have a problem with is the taking-advantage thing, with some Companies looking for an Intern to work for 40 Hours, which seriously asks questions and needs consideration as others here have pointed out, - if the employer is really taking part in JobBridge or if they're just sneakily replacing a Full-timer on 40Hours. That is the one big thing I despise about this, the taking advantage of working a full 40-Hour-week. 30-32 hours is just lovely I think. I hate the way as well some Companies look for 30-35Hours, I'm presuming 35Hours is still gonna be 5 7-hour-days so it's still 5 Full Days of the week like! :rolleyes: So yer still doing a Full-timer's hours. No problem with doing extra couple of hours here and there to help out when needed. It would be great if it was changed or defined a lot better, but a clear-cut case of taking-advantage is just not acceptable at all.

donegal11

Xenji wrote: »

It makes national news and is always the first news story if unemployment drops by even 0.1%, Labour harp on by how much they have decreased unemployment, but that 2.0% is the figure they are using, but yet these people are still unemployed, so it is actually a big deal.

The amount of schemes is unreal there's FAS,springboard, Back to education, Enterprise allowance,Jobbridge,WWP, TUS, Rural Social Scheme, Gateway scheme,CE schemes all not counted on live register(bar springboard) most of which involve working for nothing.

Borderfox

Do you really believe the government sticks to all their own rules??

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Someone else posted before that their sister worked in a place where there were more Jobbridge people than regular employees. I posted the information below to point out that it wasn't possible. They never came back to prove otherwise. Now you say that a company can have an unlimited number of Jobbridge and you are even suggesting that all the employees can be replaced by Jobbridge. Are you sure about that?

Host organisations may offer internships on the following basis:

 1-10 employees = 1 placement
 11-20 employees = 2 placements
 21-30 employees = 3 placements
 30+ employees = 20% of workforce to a maximum of 200

Soft Falling Rain

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.

Nowt new about that, recessions are the wet dream of big business and they'll cut and fcuk you over wherever they can, all the while having an attitude of tough ****, go somewhere else if you can.

Confuseddotcom, I've one question for you; what happens if the intern is cut loose after the 9 months? Do you think that person with their 9 months experience of unpaid work will be in a strong position in the market?

sligoface

Soft Falling Rain wrote: »

Nowt new about that, recessions are the wet dream of big business and they'll cut and fcuk you over wherever they can, all the while having an attitude of tough ****, go somewhere else if you can.

Confuseddotcom, I've one question for you; what happens if the intern is cut loose after the 9 months? Do you think that person with their 9 months experience of unpaid work will be in a strong position in the market?

Exactly. A person who has working for free is not going to be offered a good wage anywhere, in fact, they probably won't get offered a job at all because the company can use free labour instead. So many cheerleaders of the scheme seem to miss this basic point because all they think is 'well it's bout time they make those lazy bums do something, they be getting my tax money for free, blah blah blah'. They truly are confuseddotcom if they think this scheme will help the unemployed get off the dole.

Free labour kills job creation and lowers wages and does not save the government any money because they are paying the interns dole + 50 euro. If the government was not able to remove those in internships from the live register statistics this scheme probably wouldn't even exist because that is the only advantage the government has from it, as there is no obligation to the host company at all. Which is the main reason the scheme does not create any jobs, the company can just make you the errand boy for nine months, no one checks up on what training is given or how the intern is getting on, and there is no recourse for the company deciding not to take on a hard working successful intern as a paid employee whatsoever.

There should be records kept as to what training is provided and what tasks the intern completes each week as well their timekeeping and attendance and this should be sent into the jobbridge admins monthly. If the intern shows up and does well the company should be required to take them on or else have to pay the government back the 238 per week X 9 months because that would stop abuse of the system by companies who have no intention of offering any proper training or creating a job, and are just grabbing the free labour.

panda100

The tus scheme workers now outnumber the paid employees in my workplace. They appear to have no qualifications or experience in the field and It is increasingly difficult to work with them. I would actually say they are having an extremely negative effect on the clients we work with. Not the tus workers fault, I blame manager for choosing free, unqualified staff over qualified staff that you have to pay for.

I think having people work for free diminishes the morale of other staff too. As you are constantly training tus scheme workers. I definately cannot see myself staying with my company for very much longer as tus scheme is killing it.

panda100

Xenji wrote: »

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

Anyone have anymore articles on this.

Serco have emailed community traing centres looking for support for their tender. We got an email from them during the week, and they are holding meetings in limerick, Dublin and cork over the coming weeks. There track record in uk seems to be poor enough.

sligoface

panda100 wrote: »

The tus scheme workers now outnumber the paid employers in my workplace. They appear to have no qualifications or experience in the field and It is increasingly difficult to work with them. I would actually say they are having an extremely negative effect on the clients we work with. Not the tus workers fault, I blame manager for choosing free, unqualified staff over qualified staff that you have to pay for.

I think having people work for free diminishes the morale of other staff too. As you are constantly training tus scheme workers. I definately cannot see myself staying with my company for very much longer as tus scheme is killing it.

Well if the government didn't create these nonsensical schemes businesses could not take advantage so that's who I blame, but I also boycott any local businesses that I see using jobbridge (I am looking for work so I see all the ads for interns as well).

Glad to see someone in paid work who realizes the flaws in these schemes as it often seems to be mostly just the unemployed who are protesting against it, while those who are in work or have not experienced unemployment recently seem to be in favor of making people sweep the streete or whatever for the dole. But of course this is bad for businesses and their clients. People are motivated by proper paychecks. If I was made to work for the dole with no chance of a paid position down the line I woudn't be going out of my way to please clients either. Only when people in work start getting replaced by free workers will be we see the taxpaying workers really rise up against it too, I think. And this has already started to happen.

JustAThought

I see the Royal Irish Academy - many of whose private members are on multiple government contracts & lecturing roles netting on average over e 150,000 per annum each conservatively - have now advertised their new communications job as an internship . Disgusting.

dxhound2005

JustAThought wrote: »

I see the Royal Irish Academy - many of whose private members are on multiple government contracts & lecturing roles netting on average over e 150,000 per annum each conservatively - have now advertised their new communications job as an internship . Disgusting.

When you say "now" I think you mean a year ago.

http://ria.ie/About/Human-Resources/Vacancies/Vacancies---Focloir-na-Nua-Ghaeilge-Internship

Person Specification
The intern will be interested in developing their research skills and knowledge of the digital humanities as well as have a keen interest in pursuing a career in the Irish language sector.

The successful applicant will have:
•An honours degree in Modern Irish
•A very high level of accuracy and attention to detail
•Excellent IT skills
•An interest in the Irish language
•The ability to work on their own or as part of a team

Application Process

Applications for the Intern position must be submitted in one document in the following order:
1.A succinct curriculum vitae summarising your qualifications, skills and relevant experience (max 2 pages).
2.A statement outlining how you see the internship fitting in to your career plan and what you will bring to the role.

Applications must be emailed to hrria.ie. The closing date for applications is 22nd February 2013.

The Royal Irish Academy is an equal opportunities employer

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

ABajaninCork

dxhound2005 wrote: »

When you say "now" I think you mean a year ago.

http://ria.ie/About/Human-Resources/Vacancies/Vacancies---Focloir-na-Nua-Ghaeilge-Internship

Person Specification
The intern will be interested in developing their research skills and knowledge of the digital humanities as well as have a keen interest in pursuing a career in the Irish language sector.

The successful applicant will have:
•An honours degree in Modern Irish
•A very high level of accuracy and attention to detail
•Excellent IT skills
•An interest in the Irish language
•The ability to work on their own or as part of a team

Application Process

Applications for the Intern position must be submitted in one document in the following order:
1.A succinct curriculum vitae summarising your qualifications, skills and relevant experience (max 2 pages).
2.A statement outlining how you see the internship fitting in to your career plan and what you will bring to the role.

Applications must be emailed to hrria.ie. The closing date for applications is 22nd February 2013.

The Royal Irish Academy is an equal opportunities employer

Let's say the internship started in March. It's 9 months for a single internship. Which would end in December -right?

What's the betting the intern has left and the company are looking for another one???

mothnot

:

dxhound2005 wrote: »

Someone else posted before that their sister worked in a place where there were more Jobbridge people than regular employees. I posted the information below to point out that it wasn't possible. They never came back to prove otherwise. Now you say that a company can have an unlimited number of Jobbridge and you are even suggesting that all the employees can be replaced by Jobbridge. Are you sure about that?

Host organisations may offer internships on the following basis:

 1-10 employees = 1 placement
 11-20 employees = 2 placements
 21-30 employees = 3 placements
 30+ employees = 20% of workforce to a maximum of 200

:oThat was me. Sorry meant to get back on that . You are of course correct that there is a limit on jobbridge numbers depending on employees. My sister was refeering to her lunch break where there were only 2 staff members on lunch and about 6/7 jobbridge staff. Sorry for any confusion....

snubbleste

Actually that's a good position with the Royal Irish Academy.
People would do an internship for the RIA for free.

runawaybishop

Soft Falling Rain wrote: »

Nowt new about that, recessions are the wet dream of big business and they'll cut and fcuk you over wherever they can, all the while having an attitude of tough ****, go somewhere else if you can.

In fairness to Baxter they are on the cusp of closing all their operations here and are using whatever they can to stay. If a few interns keep the rest of the staff in jobs its a small price to pay.

Daith

snubbleste wrote: »

Actually that's a good position with the Royal Irish Academy.
People would do an internship for the RIA for free.

That's what I thought. I don't have an issue with Jobbridge if it's an actual internship type deal rather than replacing actual work.

tayto lover

runawaybishop wrote: »

In fairness to Baxter they are on the cusp of closing all their operations here and are using whatever they can to stay. If a few interns keep the rest of the staff in jobs its a small price to pay.

How long though before all the staff are interns?
Is there something in place to prevent that?
Some places exploiting the scheme clearly if this thread is a reflection on what's happening.

Xenji

Baxter let over 100 people go just before Christmas in town, you can say that the interns are keeping jobs, but would they have let that many go if the scheme had not existed, Baxter may have been very good to the town over the years, but they have got rid of over half the workforce here in recent years, while being the most active seeker of interns in Castlebar besides the council.

tayto lover

Xenji wrote: »

Baxter let over 100 people go just before Christmas in town, you can say that the interns are keeping jobs, but would they have let that many go if the scheme had not existed, Baxter may have been very good to the town over the years, but they have got rid of over half the workforce here in recent years, while being the most active seeker of interns in Castlebar besides the council.

If they're still making loads of profit then that's very wrong. Are they?

Daith

tayto lover wrote: »

If they're still making loads of profit then that's very wrong. Are they?

It's not wrong legally. They can hire up to what's legally allowed.

Xenji

tayto lover wrote: »

If they're still making loads of profit then that's very wrong. Are they?

They made 3.8 billion in sales last year.

tayto lover

Daith wrote: »

It's not wrong legally. They can hire up to what's legally allowed.

Well it's morally wrong to let staff go and replace them with unpaid interns.
Something should be done about that clearly.
Is there a union in Baxters I wonder?

tayto lover

Xenji wrote: »

They made 3.8 billion in sales last year.

Greed then.
Shouldn't be allowed to do that in my book.
They're no better than feckin Tescos.