Chris Grayling, the ConDem employment minister says anyone who criticises the government's "work experience" scheme is a "job snob".
He tells us that he is "immensely grateful to Tesco, Poundland, Asda, Holland & Barrett and all other companies who are offering young people a chance to gain their first foothold on the jobs ladder".
Asda is "only" the biggest retail giant in the world, with £803m profits last year. And Tesco is "only" the world's 3rd biggest supermarket chain with £3.7bn profits! Their chief executives earned respectively£3.2m and £6.9m last year! But never mind, Graying is still "grateful" to them for accepting the free-and-for-nothing labour that the government's Work and Pensions department has made available to them from the ranks of the unemployed!
Yes, the "work placements" which could last for 6 months, are paid for by receiving your Job Seekers' Allowance of £53.45 per week (under-25s), or £67.50, plus minimal expenses - and you may lose the JSA, if you abandon the job! Which company would quibble with that? It is the companies involved who must surely be "immensely grateful"?
They would be, of course, if was not for the hue and cry this "free labour" scandal has caused. But Mr Graying is undeterred. He claims that no exploitation is involved. It's a wonderful case of helping the unemployed up the work ladder... Anyone who says otherwise must be a "socialist"!
As if it was not such an obvious cover for making the unemployed pay, once more, for the fact that there are no jobs out there! And even worse, using this as an excuse to give already highly profitable companies another handout, which is what this "work programme" and all its many variants amounts to!
Just as the banks keep being given even more money (quantitative easing 3) while refusing to lend, companies are being given more free labour while they refuse to create real jobs!
Compulsory work - for your benefit
Since the "unpaid work" row began 2 weeks ago, Tesco has said it would never have expected anyone to work for free (!) and will certainly pay wages to all of its "work experience" candidates (how much, though, it doesn't say!). Others, like Waterstones, Poundland and Burger King have pulled out of the scheme completely.
However, not only are there other schemes which the government runs through its contracted agencies (even if they are downright crooked, as the A4E agency, in charge of the "Work Programme", appears to be) - but companies have their very own "work-for-free programmes" and have had for some time. And this is over and above all those bogus "apprentice schemes" which the supermarkets and chains like Starbucks have announced, to take advantage of government subsidies!
Even corporations like the Guardian newspaper and the BBC, expect youngsters (usually unemployed university graduates) to work for 6 months or more, as "interns" without pay, with the possibility, but no promise, of a job afterwards!
In other words, they have been doing precisely what the government is doing, and for some time. As for Tesco and the other retailers, who today stand accused of exploiting "slave labour" - they have been using and abusing casual, part-time labour on the minimum wage for years. It is their "normal" employment practice and just as outrageous as their willingness to exploit "free labour" - until they were caught out.
At the same time, Grayling - and the companies concerned - are at pains to point out that the "voluntary" schemes they subscribe to are not the same as the "MWA, or Mandatory Work Activity" scheme, aimed at "difficult customers". This scheme makes it compulsory to accept a 30hr/week placement for 4 weeks minimum, in exchange for unemployment benefit, which will be cut if the "customer" refuses the "job". The MWA is administered by private companies, so all information on which companies exploit the scheme is "confidential"! No wonder.
The means to pay for the work is there!
It is not as if there are not plenty of socially necessary jobs which need doing - and urgently! Whether it be in social and health care, or education - or maintaining and renewing the infrastructure around us, and providing and building new homes. Potentially, there is rewarding, useful, work for all of the unemployed.
What is more, British companies sit on the biggest cash pile in the industrial world - worth 6% of GDP. They could easily hire workers on proper wages and with proper benefits, to do the work which society requires.
But of course, they will only do it if they are forced to - via "MWC" shall we say, or "mandatory work creation"! If they refuse, they should face the confiscation of all their "benefits", that is, their profits! Implementing such a penalty will be one of the "jobs" which the working class will have to tackle collectively, though - hopefully in the not-too-distant future. Because if the working class doesn't, nobody else will.