Video: Brit weigert te dwangarbeiden bij bedrijf waar ie net ontslagen werd
A man who was let go at the end of a temporary job has been ordered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to work for the same firm for six months without pay. Electronics specialist John McArthur, now unemployed, says he is living off 16p tins of spaghetti and without heating after being sanctioned by a jobcentre for refusing to work unpaid for LAMH Recycle in Motherwell, a Scottish social enterprise. He says he was happy to work for LAMH under the now-defunct future jobs fund for the minimum wage in 2010-2011, but refuses on principle to do the same job unpaid. McArthur, 59, says he is surviving on a monthly pension of £149 after the DWP stopped his unemployment benefit until January as punishment for his refusal to go on the 26-week community work placement (CWP). For almost three months, McArthur has spent two hours each weekday morning parading outside the plant wearing a placard reading: “Say no to slave labour”. “It was simply a case of: ‘Go here, work for nothing and if you don’t we’ll stop your subsistence level benefit,’” he said. (…) The DWP said it could not comment on individual cases but added that community work placements “help long-term unemployed people to gain work experience which increases their confidence, helps them to gain vital skills and crucially, improves their chances of getting a job. “We are not naming the charities and community groups involved in the scheme in order to protect them from those who seem intent on stopping us helping people into work.”
Shiv Malik in DWP orders man to work without pay for company that let him go (Guardian)
Je baan kwijt raken onder de noemer bezuinigingen en vervolgens weer te werk gesteld worden in je eigen beroep, maar dan met behoud van je uitkering, onder dreiging van een straf. Dit zie je steeds vaker, ook in Nederland. Het beperkt zich niet meer tot laaggeschoold werkzaamheden. Ik ken ondertussen architecten, juristen, ICT’ers en anderen hoog opgeleide mensen die met behoud van hun uitkering, hun eigen beroep, gedwongen weer moeten uitoefen, maar nu dan met behoud van hun uitkering. Het gaat ook niet om een paar mensen, het is een steeds groter wordende groep mensen.