We are publishing below the latest briefing from .'Boycott Workfare'
"The
workfare industry annual conference disrupted
with a very loud noise demo.
Salvation Army in Edinburgh – the main users of Mandatory Work Activity in the
city –blockaded
for two hours. An
anti-sanctions action in Germany.
Solidarity with claimants subject to the farcical pilot of Universal Credit.
The petition for all sanctions to be scrapped hit
10,000 signatures. Tea and information outside
job centres. Workfare users picketed in Wales, Scotland and England. All
this in just one
week in
2013 – a year in which ordinary people made workfare’s progress a whole lot more
rocky.
Targeting
workfare exploiters
In
2013, your actions online and on the streets meant these brands stepped back
from workfare: Shoe Zone, The Red Cross, Capability Scotland, Marriott Hotels,
Superdrug, Argos, Wetherspoons and Debenhams.
In
April, we helped expose that at least one Homebase store was using 25
placements at a time to save hundreds of hours on their payroll, and cutting
existing workers’ hours as a result. Thousands of people took action online and
outside Homebase stores across the UK, and just one month later, the company withdrew from the
scheme (though we’re chasing up reports that it’s since reappeared in their
Willesden store).
Haringey Solidarity Group showed how effective it can be when local people take on workfare exploiters on their doorstep. When they discovered Homes for Haringey was using workfare to maintain its estates, action at board meetings and local council meetings stepped up the pressure. The result? Those working for Homes for Haringey will now be paid.
Haringey Solidarity Group showed how effective it can be when local people take on workfare exploiters on their doorstep. When they discovered Homes for Haringey was using workfare to maintain its estates, action at board meetings and local council meetings stepped up the pressure. The result? Those working for Homes for Haringey will now be paid.
Disrupting
industry events
When
the workfare industry has met, campaigners have been there too – to unpick their
doublespeak and make sure the real-life consequences of their decisions can’t be
forgotten. When thinktank Policy Exchange supported sanctions being extended to
people in work on low incomes, rolling
disruption meant their event was (in the words of its organiser) “ruined”.
In Manchester, delegates to the Welfare to Work Convention were met with
protests at their lavish dinner at the Hilton. Iain Duncan
Smith and Mark
Hoban have both faced hecklers during speeches on welfare ‘reform’.
Reducing
the number of placements
When
the Work Programme was launched in June 2011, it was promised that those
finishing it would be directed onto a six month long workfare scheme, the
Community Action Programme. However, no such scheme was
launched in June 2013 probably because it was not feasible after we
persuaded so many charities to end their involvement.
In the government’s
appeal against the Information Commissioner’s ruling that it must reveal
those using workfare labour, the Department for Work and Pensions argued: “The
activities of campaign groups and the results of negative publicity meant that…
“a great many placement organisations” had ceased to offer placements. That in
turn reduced the numbers of opportunities available across both programmes with
a loss of many placements and prospective new placements being at risk.”
The
DWP’s appeal revealed that one subcontractor has complained about a loss of 100
placements per week in its area alone. The cost of each Mandatory Work Activity
placement has
doubled since we made it so much more difficult to find placements.
They
know the public don’t want to see jobs replaced by workfare
The
Taxpayers’ Alliance felt the need to slander Boycott Workfare in its ‘Work for the Dole’
“report”, commenting that because of our success in persuading charities to
withdraw, it is vital that “the public case for the morality and the economics
of the [workfare] scheme is very strongly made”. The government has used our
campaigning as the explicit reason for turning down Freedom of Information
requests about who is using workfare.
We
know that the government and workfare industry see our activities as a genuine
threat to workfare’s viability. This means that in 2014, we have the opportunity
to make sure the schemes do indeed become unworkable.
Every
success against workfare is because ordinary people take action.
Workfare
has the backing of the three main political parties, their thinktanks, the
welfare to work industry (which only exists because of the public money handed
to it), and the companies, charities and councils who are able to cut their
wages bills by using unpaid work. Some professionals e.g. psychologists also make money from
supporting workfare, while others e.g. some public health professionals, remain
silent instead of speaking out.
But
against this stand the people who face the impact of workfare in our lives: the
threat of sanctions and the hunger they bring for people sent on workfare; the
loss of paid work as workfare is used instead; the threat of workfare with no
time limit for people found ‘fit to work’ by the disgusting Atos assessment; and
the toll all this takes on our wellbeing. With workfare even touted for people on
low incomes in part-time work, few people can afford to ignore its
threat.
The
actions of Cait Reilly and Jamie Wilson in the courts deserve special mention
here. These two people pursued justice to the Supreme Court – where workfare
schemes were ruled to have been
unlawful. Faced with this challenge, the government, supported by Labour,
enacted unprecedented
retroactive legislation to rewrite history. Being found unlawful hasn’t been
enough to stop workfare, but our actions can be.
For
workfare to succeed, it needs companies, charities and councils to co-operate.
We’ve shown that we can make sure it’s not worth their while to do so. Osborne
wants 6 month workfare
placements in charities and the public sector to become the norm from April
2014. We can make sure they don’t.
Take
action in 2014
- Book your travel for a day of skills and info-sharing on 15 February (or let us know if you’d need help with travel costs)
- Send the charities using workfare a new year’s message
- Send the companies using workfare a new year’s message
- Send the companies using a new workfare scheme for young people a new year’s message
- Join those who are demanding that the British Psychological Society and their members take a stand against workfare by tweeting at them
- Take a look at the different ways you can help
- Keep an eye on this email list and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay in touch for more action in 2014."
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