Government-approved slavery in Britian: aka "Work Experience".

Via the Guardian:

Britain's young unemployed are being sent to work for supermarkets and budget stores for up to two months for no pay and no guarantee of a job, the Guardian can reveal.

...

Young people have told the Guardian that they are doing up to 30 hours a week of unpaid labour and have to be available from 9am to 10pm.

...

"I was told [the work experience placement] was mandatory after I'd attended the [retail] open day," said Reilly.

She said she felt she had to do it because, "without my JSA, I would literally have nothing".

...

But including similar schemes such as "mandatory work activity", sector-based work academies and the work programme, which is mainly run by private companies, the government expect hundreds of thousands of young people to do weeks of unpaid, and forced work experience for big companies.

I think the title I've provided for this post tells you what I think this is equivalent to, and for the record, I've been there, done that, and hated every fucking second of it. The utter fear for one's livelihood that is used to motivate people in this, is disgusting. JSA is calculated based on "what the government says you need to live" (using the language of my notifications at the end of each tax year of the change in my benefit) - it is barely enough to get by. They might as well lock these young people up in cages and give them basic food for subsistence and have done with it. (Now I've said that, of course, the Daily Mail or Daily Express will probably think that's a great idea and start campaigning for it **shudder**)

Now, I am currently not being jerked around in quite this way, despite being officially on the Work Programme. For one thing, I've shown myself to be pretty good at sticking up for myself (Letters of complaint? I can haz moar skilz in writing them!) For another, the guy who's overseeing it for me (he's from G4S/RBLI - yes, there's a link between G4S and the Royal British Legion, and they run a programme for the Jobcentre) has said directly to me (at my last appointment with him 2 weeks ago, in fact), "We are not in the business of people trafficking," when describing to me PRECISELY the problem that the Guardian article highlights, and saying that he does NOT want to be responsible for doing that. He wants there to be a realistic chance that any placement I am given will lead to a long-term, sustainable job, and that the promise of an interview is also a promise of there being a job to interview for. So, I have an ethical person to deal with, making me one of the lucky ones.

See also my posts: Young and out of work (based on another Guardian article) and Degrading Work.