The Jobbridge Scandal

Paddy Cow

Caliden wrote: »

The thing is if they get rid of jobsbridge now the unemployment will shoot up to a % that hasn't been seen in years.

TD's are too afraid to do anything because if they do they know people will vote in someone else if the unemployment rate goes up.

Personally I think the only hope we have is for another party to be voted in, abolish jobsbridge and blame it on the previous Government...

I wouldn't like to see Jobbridge done away with completely. In theory it is a good scheme. I did an internship but it wasn't advertised. I approached a company and asked them to take me on as I knew it was tailored to my needs. The company then register their internship and took me on.

I wonder do people know that you can do this? If you research a company and they agree to take you on, you are more likely to get experience relevant to your skill set and not end up doing some crappy one that is basically free labour.

I would definitely like to see an end to "internships" that are basically minimum wage jobs. Proper internships are for people who have studied academically but haven't got practical experience yet. And nine months is too long. Six months is more than enough. I hear they want to extend it to 18 months, which is really taking the p!ss.

Xenji

Paddy Cow wrote: »

I wouldn't like to see Jobbridge done away with completely. In theory it is a good scheme. I did an internship but it wasn't advertised. I approached a company and asked them to take me on as I knew it was tailored to my needs. The company then register their internship and took me on.

I wonder do people know that you can do this? If you research a company and they agree to take you on, you are more likely to get experience relevant to your skill set and not end up doing some crappy one that is basically free labour.

I would definitely like to see an end to "internships" that are basically minimum wage jobs. Proper internships are for people who have studied academically but haven't got practical experience yet. And nine months is too long. Six months is more than enough. I hear they want to extend it to 18 months, which is really taking the p!ss.

It already has been, but you can not do the 18 months with the same company, so you can now do two 9 month internships or three 6 month internships, but they have to be with different companies.

guinnessdrinker

One of the worst Jobbridge fiascos I have heard yet was from a friend that was on a Jobbridge internship. All the paid employees of the company he was interning in worked 39 hours a week but he worked 40 hours a week as an intern!!!

Idbatterim

But it doesn't. LAnd, Cash and Capital are not enough on their own to create employment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factors_of_production

so your telling the government cant take on more guards, nurses, teachers, specials needs assistants etc? Whether they should or not is another thing. Of course it is not as straightforward with private enterprises...

Xenji

Idbatterim wrote: »

so your telling the government cant take on more guards, nurses, teachers, specials needs assistants etc? Whether they should or not is another thing. Of course it is not as straightforward with private enterprises...

They can definitely take on more civil servants, although I think more people have coped on to the scheme or we have just exhausted our supply, we advertised for 2 interns for our department at the start of the year and had no responses for them, that was a first, we would usually interview a minimum of 5 people.

Caliden

darkpagandeath wrote: »

But everyone knows the % unemployed is way higher than they say, so many schemes running to massage the figures. Its common knowledge tbh

Common knowledge to you and me but a large portion of Ireland take the Government press release as Gospel and don't question it.

"Unemployment down 0.5%? Great news!"

darkpagandeath

Caliden wrote: »

Common knowledge to you and me but a large portion of Ireland take the Government press release as Gospel and don't question it.

"Unemployment down 0.5%? Great news!"

And they have only been working on it what 5 years ? :P

ThirdMan

cocacola1 wrote: »

these set of schoolteachers running the country will NEVER be made redundant or have to live on 188 euro a week, they have jobs for life since they finished college

Click here and read through the profile of these people and look at their education and early career. They are extremely driven and hardworking. I don't like their politics either, but to say they've had jobs for life since they left college is utter rubbish.

Idbatterim

Government pay cuts[edit]
In one of his first acts in the top office, Kenny slashed his own pay by €14,000 (a reduction of 7% which leaves his weekly net income at over €2,500). The new government also decided to cut the pay of senior ministers. The Taoiseach's pay was cut from €214,187 to €200,000. Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore's pay was cut from €197,486 to €184,405. Ministers' pay was reduced to €169,275 (from €181,283), while pay for Ministers of State was cut from €139,266 to €130,042.

taken from wikipedia link above, over E2500 per week NET income!!!

ThirdMan

Idbatterim wrote: »

taken from wikipedia link above, over E2500 per week NET income!!!

Politicians are overpaid. You had to press buttons to learn that?

Idbatterim

Politicians are overpaid. You had to press buttons to learn that?
ThirdMan is online now

No of course I didnt, its a fairly outrageous amount of money though and I thought it was worth highlighting, is that ok with you? Here we are way down at the other end of the spectrum, jobsbridge, and we wonder why we are in this situation, the greedy pigs at the top cant get keep their noses out of the trough, which leaves far less for everyone else. The unemployed have it the worst. It doesnt have to be this way, sort out the waste and wasters and there is more than enough for everyone to be happy...

guinnessdrinker

ThirdMan wrote: »

Politicians are overpaid. You had to press buttons to learn that?

Irish politicans especially.

The One Doctor

I've been trying to figure out the actual unemployment numbers (Live register + Jobbridge + FAS + CE schemes etc etc) but keep getting different figures. Does anyone have the real unemployment numbers?

There's a lot of people having difficulty finding work and it's unfair to state that the unemployment rate is 14% or whatever - it's far higher, I'm guessing 22%. Ironically, the unemployment rate means that my part-time job will become a full time job in a few months if it keeps going like this.

ThirdMan

Idbatterim wrote: »

No of course I didnt, its a fairly outrageous amount of money though and I thought it was worth highlighting, is that ok with you? Here we are way down at the other end of the spectrum, jobsbridge, and we wonder why we are in this situation, the greedy pigs at the top cant get keep their noses out of the trough, which leaves far less for everyone else. The unemployed have it the worst. It doesnt have to be this way, sort out the waste and wasters and there is more than enough for everyone to be happy...

I'm sorry for snapping at you. I thought you were replying to me while ignoring the point I was trying to make. I totally got the wrong end of the stick

I can see why you'd want to highlight those figures. It is outrageous alright, and nothing new, which is the real shame.

My apologies again.

Xenji

The One Doctor wrote: »

I've been trying to figure out the actual unemployment numbers (Live register + Jobbridge + FAS + CE schemes etc etc) but keep getting different figures. Does anyone have the real unemployment numbers?

There's a lot of people having difficulty finding work and it's unfair to state that the unemployment rate is 14% or whatever - it's far higher, I'm guessing 22%. Ironically, the unemployment rate means that my part-time job will become a full time job in a few months if it keeps going like this.

You will never get the true number, people who are unemployed and on social welfare but are doing any of the multitude of schemes the government and fas have came up with are counted as being off the live register.

ThirdMan

Xenji wrote: »

You will never get the true number, people who are unemployed and on social welfare but are doing any of the multitude of schemes the government and fas have came up with are counted as being off the live register.

Are you sure? I was listening to a guy on the radio yesterday who was quite adamant that people on Jobsbridge were not being counted as employed. But I don't know. I'm hearing two stories all the time.

Xenji

ThirdMan wrote: »

Are you sure? I was listening to a guy on the radio yesterday who was quite adamant that people on Jobsbridge were not being counted as employed. But I don't know. I'm hearing two stories all the time.

I have heard it mentioned by reporters and analysts on Six One and on The Matt Cooper show various times that they are not included in the live register figures, I have heard it being said on the lunch time news on Today FM a few times as well. Posters on the Politics.ie forums seem to be in the agreement that this is true also.

Idbatterim

I'm sorry for snapping at you. I thought you were replying to me while ignoring the point I was trying to make. I totally got the wrong end of the stick

I can see why you'd want to highlight those figures. It is outrageous alright, and nothing new, which is the real shame.

My apologies again.

no worries, just a misunderstanding, lets back to attacking to the government

bodhrandude

Xenji wrote: »

My sister applied for about 20 internships last year and only heard back from one person, the other 19 did not even give any notification of receiving the application let alone saying if she was successful or not. Another friend got 4 replies back saying that the companies were not sure how the scheme worked and wanted him to get a letter from the social welfare stating he was eligible for the internship and get information on the scheme to give them as well.

Just got an email from them, the interview process is still ongoing, so heres hoping that it works out.

Xenji

There were actually 86,162 people in Activation Programmes at the end of last year, so these people are not counted as being on the live register, even if they are still in receipt of social welfare.

This is taken from official CSO figures before the usual naysayers turn up http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/lr/liveregisterjanuary2014/#.UvQ9vPl_uSo

It also states on the CSO website that

Persons on activation programmes are not counted as part of the monthly Live Register.

Starbordsie

bodhrandude wrote: »

Just got an email from them, the interview process is still ongoing, so heres hoping that it works out.

I wouldn't get your hopes up, surely if they wanted you, you'd know by now? :-/

runawaybishop

Idbatterim wrote: »

No of course I didnt, its a fairly outrageous amount of money though and I thought it was worth highlighting, is that ok with you? Here we are way down at the other end of the spectrum, jobsbridge, and we wonder why we are in this situation, the greedy pigs at the top cant get keep their noses out of the trough, which leaves far less for everyone else. The unemployed have it the worst. It doesnt have to be this way, sort out the waste and wasters and there is more than enough for everyone to be happy...

They could work for free and we'd still be in the sh1tter.

sligoface

ThirdMan wrote: »

Are you sure? I was listening to a guy on the radio yesterday who was quite adamant that people on Jobsbridge were not being counted as employed. But I don't know. I'm hearing two stories all the time.

Well the guy on the radio is wrong. I was on a jobbridge, applied for fuel allowance and was told that your claim is frozen and you are taken off the live register as soon as you start an internship. My claim for fuel allowance was denied based on this because you have to be on the live register a certain number of days to qualify. If I didn't take up the internship I would have gotten it. Was quite peeved at this as that meant I was only 30 euro better off than if I had stayed on the dole because I couldn't get the 20 euro fuel allowance. Same thing happened to another poster, there was a thread about this issue.

If they weren't taken off the live register the government wouldn't bother pushing it on to the unemployed, because it costs them an extra 50 euro per week for each intern, and most interns do not get kept on as employees. The only thing it has succeeded in doing is helping with figures, really.

Quazzie

Does the unemployment benefit for 18 year olds only increase by €50 per week as well or is their increase greater because their starting point was lower?

ABajaninCork

Quazzie wrote: »

Does the unemployment benefit for 18 year olds only increase by €50 per week as well or is their increase greater because their starting point was lower?

It increases by €50 only. The starting rate is irrelevant.

Friend of mine lost his job recently, he was not the only one, about 20 people lost jobs, others were made to quit. Turns out this is a company who is using job bridge , he now has to go to a meeting to accept a job bridge position or his benefits are cut. So now he has to go work at half the wage thanks to the system that made him loose his job !!

Chucky the tree

Deleted User wrote: »

Friend of mine lost his job recently, he was not the only one, about 20 people lost jobs, others were made to quit. Turns out this is a company who is using job bridge , he now has to go to a meeting to accept a job bridge position or his benefits are cut. So now he has to go work at half the wage thanks to the system that made him loose his job !!

When did he loss his job?

dxhound2005

Deleted User wrote: »

Friend of mine lost his job recently, he was not the only one, about 20 people lost jobs, others were made to quit. Turns out this is a company who is using job bridge , he now has to go to a meeting to accept a job bridge position or his benefits are cut. So now he has to go work at half the wage thanks to the system that made him loose his job !!

Put up the Jobbridge ad. Easy enough to find it here.

http://intern.jobbridge.ie/

Cantona's Collars

That's shocking,if it was me I'd cause murders.

Here's another scam job. http://intern.jobbridge.ie/Default.aspx?q=B+fomdowzS8kaDnSlUDk1zaMUPiFEeNrNWjviinu490thmC2C0u+DKcfA1ql4nP12laW4rBhWfK0qIo61BOdCGkmHYr2OqTYh8HayYlTDD8H9PsC79RoJAy5s+SdraqqTMfQj4T6rIDUe7EC3kTdx57LQmB29d/zrt2bJNUD8CnMePcOBi7IyMZB+JjQ1VJmPaZDPCLCDslNrqIs9RycHqe6bm97qIV8ZySOiUVWZgeTirLm0zqeQXFr0kA5Blza3k4JroLhedAyAe/BM8sP/lZtG+zCmBqqxcp2Da5tdbjcmpvKQcQmkEiymu0YSjILhYtFKDfqAqlH2DAqVdPiBwfsE2NgDmYWXOIwNtere9/MGZCef6auYPA8SqibsCmKGc7/M+bqOMAK/Y5w9tgE7klFjXJUczvmjyQSnVB7lQ1Zi5u7J9PMrw7Ki43XGERRGYF0RMtVKrnfjeuwoq5K1WKB3ThxK2Y+MJ5iBcmn3Kk=

WoollyRedHat

We should have a list of shame posted up.