Simon Lewis Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Can't verify the story, but it's in the Gurniad - so must be true! Unemployed bussed in to steward river pageant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brainwave-generator Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Can't verify the story, but it's in the Gurniad - so must be true! Unemployed bussed in to steward river pageant Am I the only person who doesn't really see a problem? They say they're unpaid, but they're not. They get paid free money every week despite doing diddly squat. If all they have to do for their benefits is a day of work in London every 10 years they're doing better than I am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Mmm some ones on a nice little earner considering £1.5 million was paid for stewardsFollowing multi-agency assessment of the scope of River Pageant and the requirement for adequate stewarding and crowd management arrangements along the route on the north and south banks of the Thames, it is proposed that DCMS, Home Office and GLA make an equal contribution of up to £500,000 each towards the costs of such arrangements.http://www.london.gov.uk/who-runs-london/mayor/mayoral-decisions/md1005And theres now rumours of contracted paid staff told they were no longer needed a few days before the event Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Why do you want it verified, the charity concerned has apologised for dropping these people in it? Are you not aware of what is going on in the real world? Afghan veterans with artificial limbs, terminal cancer sufferers, men in comas, quadraplegics confined to wheelchairs are all being found "fit-for-work" by the Paralympic sponsor ATOS. DWP has made 10,000 redundant and outsourced the work to India. They want to close all Jobcentres and make everyone "sign on" online making a further 35,000 jobless. As I could be modded for politics I may as well say that if you believe anything this government tells you then you haven't been online with Black Triangle, Johnny Void, Green Benches, Disabled People Against Cuts or Boycott Workfare where genuine experts, including former MP's, expose the reality. This particular incident is far from the worst and merely involves DWP, Tomorrow's People and Close Protection UK being in breach of the SIA Act, nothing too drastic, just lawbreaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 nothing too drastic, just lawbreaking. AKA politics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 In answer to Brainwaves post, these are mostly younger people, some of whom are graduates, on £45 a week. Employment Support/ Jobseekers Allowance is not "free money" it is an allowance to help them look for work which they have to prove that they are doing. They too are taxpayers, we all are and what this means is that waged workers are denied earnings thus depriving the exchequer of income tax. Trying to fit up to 6,000,000 bodies (unemployed, underemployed, those ATOS says are "fit-to-work" and those not registered) into 400,000 jobs means that every one of these kids is taking someone elses job. Will it be yours next? This affects all of you suckers who have yet to retire. Make a noise or you too will be working 30 hours for £45/£65 a week. You do all know that if Workfare get hold of you then you cannot be a union member? Or belong to any trade association? Or that you will be uninsured? Or that WTD and NMW is automatically suspended? Or if you refuse to work 30 hours night shift in Argos depriving paid employees of their overtime (popular you will be, not Yoda) then you lose the right to the £45 a week or any other benefits?Or that CPUK have not denied billing the pageant 24 hrs X 80 bodies plus transport at full rates for this contract? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
themadhippy Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Am I the only person who doesn't really see a problem?so you'd be perfectly happy to loose a day or mores pay whilst a "trainee" does your job no money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuart91 Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Am I the only person who doesn't really see a problem?so you'd be perfectly happy to loose a day or mores pay whilst a "trainee" does your job no money? If your skill level is such that anyone can be lifted straight off a dole queue to replace you, then you are not in a very secure place to start with. Good luck differentiating yourself from the hordes of other jobseekers out there. Having said that, in this specific situation there might have been some interesting ramifications had there been any sort of mishap that could have been blamed on poor stewarding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brainwave-generator Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Am I the only person who doesn't really see a problem?so you'd be perfectly happy to loose a day or mores pay whilst a "trainee" does your job no money? If your skill level is such that anyone can be lifted straight off a dole queue to replace you, then you are not in a very secure place to start with. Good luck differentiating yourself from the hordes of other jobseekers out there. Precisely. I am not particularly worried about any of my employers deciding that they're better off using jobseekers than riggers to put points in. My comment was supposed to be light hearted. My actual view is there's still nothing wrong though. We all moan about how we've got students coming into our industry covered in qualifications but without any experience. The people in this article as such people - they've done the classroom element of spectator safety, but have no formal experience. So, companies like CPUK who lay on the training use their real-world security contracts to build up student experience, before awarding them their NVQ. Events like this are an ideal place to hone your skills, looking after high volumes of people traffic on a busy event weekend. Gather experience from that work, match it with your training, get your NVQ, and you now have a solid portfolio to take into security companies and actively look for work. But being a single day, if they paid them say, £100; they'd all have to come off JSA because you can't do JSA and paid work together. JSA isn't just £45 a week, it also offers benefits like reduced rent in council houses. Quite a significant discount too. One of my friends is on the dole and said to me that he will have to be KEEPING £500 a month in a job before it works out better than JSA. So had CPUK paid them £100, they might have lost a whole load of JSA and benefits, for £100. Doesn't make sense, does it? Providing work experience is structured and worthwhile, I've nothing against it. Most major companies take interns or apprentices, and the pay level varies from nothing good to workable salaries. That's all thats happened here. It's just that like usual, the Guardian have blown it out of the water and made it look like slave labour. And the Labour politicians (who get their opinions from the Guardian anyway) will no doubt find a way to pin it on the PM and his elitist ways and this minor molehill will soon tower over Everest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Lewis Posted June 5, 2012 Author Share Posted June 5, 2012 I'm aware that stories can be slightly biased in their reporting... However, this one seems to have a number of ramifications for our industry, and seems to undo a lot of the good work carried out over the past decade or so in improving crowd management. John Prescott doesn't like the story much either... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kerry davies Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 With you all the way Simon. The industry as a whole has been trying to raise standards and along comes the DWP to undo all the good work. The MD of this technically insolvent company has allegedly had several security companies go under before and it is amazing that DP deems them suitable as training providers. The other thing that rankles is the use of NVQ's as entry qualifications rather than the on-the-job training they were designed to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seano Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Can't verify the story, but it's in the Gurniad - so must be true!Unemployed bussed in to steward river pageant "Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London. A spokesman said the unpaid work was a trial for paid roles at the Olympics, which it had also won a contract to staff." <sfx: hollow laugh> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Lewis Posted June 5, 2012 Author Share Posted June 5, 2012 If these people were on the NVQ, were building their portfolio and were being assessed at work by their assigned assessor, then it wouldn't seem too bad. What the article implies is that many were long term unemployed who were simply offered the role and told it 'could become a job'. Whatever the political standpoint, that sounds somewhat exploitative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callumb Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 What the article implies is that many were long term unemployed who were simply offered the role and told it 'could become a job'. Whatever the political standpoint, that sounds somewhat exploitative. Exactly what the Job Centre wants you to do and believe. The reality is that its free workers for businesses... One company wanted me to work 30 hours per week for two months unpaid! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/mad.gif Cheek! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brainwave-generator Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 What the article implies is that many were long term unemployed who were simply offered the role and told it 'could become a job'. Whatever the political standpoint, that sounds somewhat exploitative. Exactly what the Job Centre wants you to do and believe. The reality is that its free workers for businesses... One company wanted me to work 30 hours per week for two months unpaid! http://www.blue-room.org.uk/public/style_emoticons/default/mad.gif Cheek! But it's a hands-tied situation. They couldn't possibly pay them. Who in their right mind would leave the dole worth £500/month for a day's security work (14 hours @ £7 would only be £100) if post-job work wasn't guaranteed? And the security company can't guarantee them the work... they might be rubbish! We regularly have students in for work experience. We can't pay them, if we're paying them we may as well pay freelancers. But how else are they going to get experience to apply for jobs? Like I said above, I think if it's a day of structured work experience as part of a formal NVQ program, that is entirely different to them saying "if you come and do a day's work for us you MIGHT get some more". If you listen to the interview on the BBC you'll hear that everyone in London that day had been on the NVQ course for a number of weeks prior to the event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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