Less
than two weeks into 2014 and we’re already having an impact! Scarborough
Council, one of the worst workfare-using councils in the UK, has cancelled its
involvement. Volunteer centre Knowsley CVS has taken the principled stand to have nothing to do with workfare
schemes. On Friday, the DWP’s social media strategists were forced to abandon
use of their hashtag #takeoverday to promote ‘work experience’ when people literally took it over to campaign against sanctions
and workfare!
Over
Christmas, The Mirror and The Guardian published our
research into UK councils using workfare. Scandalously, councils have
benefited from at least half a million hours of workfare labour since 2011. We
highlighted some particularly shocking examples, including Scarborough Borough
Council, which had taken 120 Mandatory Work Activity placements in its Parks
Department.
Apparently
the Council didn’t appreciate the national publicity, and following its first
meeting in the new year, the scheme appears to have been cancelled practically overnight [Warning: link contains
embarrassing self-congratulation by members of the same political party which
introduced workfare to the UK]. Cuts to the Parks Department were proposed in 2012. This
success should mean jobs are now a little more secure.
This
success is important: from April, the government intends to extend the average
workfare stint to six months with its ‘Community Work
Placement’ scheme. People who refuse to take part face destitution through
benefit sanctions, but councils and charities can say no and make the scheme
impossible. In recent weeks, Liverpool Volunteer Service and Knowsley CVS also followed the example of charities like Oxfam
in refusing to be part of this sanctions machine.
Scarborough’s
not the only council to be persuaded to pull out. Trade unionists in Brighton sabotaged the local council’s plans to sign a deal for free
labour with Work Programme provider Avanta. This time last year, Newcastle City
Council passed a motion saying it would have nothing to do with it (see bottom
of this blog
for the text). Norwich Council have also committed not to take part (see motion 9, page 2 here). Meanwhile, efforts by local people
in Haringey ended the use of workfare on the borough’s
council estates. Elsewhere in the public sector, we heard that trade
unionists blocked workfare in the Home Office – something that looks necessary
at the DWP, now that job centres are even mandating people to do workfare in
job centres.
We
know that when organisations pull out of workfare, it threatens
workfare’s existence. Please do everything you can to make sure your
council and local charities don’t take part. You can find out if your
council replied to our research and what it said by downloading the spreadsheet here. If there’s nothing for your
council, you could try your own Freedom of
Information request as there’s now plenty of precedents that this is
information they should share!
Also
this week:
- Take part in the Brighton picket of workfare user Grosvenor Casinos this Tuesday.
- Book your travel to the skills and info-sharing day on 15 February (or let us know if you need help with travel costs).
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