Have you ever been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?

dori2o wrote: »

Is this all part of being in business though? New staff need time to learn the job and adjust. Its always been that way. It doesnt mean however that the individual hasnt worked hard or that they have not put in a decent days work.

We constantly hear on these boards how it's wrong for people, especially aimed at those on benefits, to expect something for nothing.

Surely this applies to businesses.

We also constantly hear how people in the UK have lost their 'work ethic', its one of the arguments often raised when discussing immigration, but there is also an argument that businesses in the UK have lost their basic business acumen. The basic understanding that the business cycle involves training staff.

Look at the significant fall in proper trade apprenticeships.

Not these pretend ones for stacking shelves or answering a telephone, but those in the building trades, engineering, manufacturing etc

There was always an understanding that new staff arrived, are trained, perform to the business expectations when trained, then retire/leave etc.

Now we see a situation where businesses are moaning about the lack of skilled staff but yet are completely unwilling to provide training and apprenticeships.

I appreciate that new staff are not as productive as experienced staff, but is that a good enough reason to exploit people?

Its just making it harder and harder for people to get off JSA etc if all they have available to them is unpaid work with no guarantee of a job.

These people cannot claim benefits whilst working, even where the role is unpaid, so its often a choice between potentially getting a job, or having no money for x days/weeks etc, and given the absolute farce with theprocess of ending/reclaiming, which can take weeks to resolve, its just not worth it inmost cases, especially where more and more landlords, social and public sector, need virtually no excuse to evict people.

The other thing is, many of these jobs weve been told about in this thread are not highly skilled, theyre mainly unskilled positions or positions based mainly on commission, so what exactly is the employer losing?

The practice of unpaid trials is open to abuse, its a disgraceful policy, and the sooner its outlawed the better.

Personally I would never apply for a job, no matter how good the eventual pay/terms etc are, where I was expected to provide free labour for the business. That itself tells me enough about how the business views the people who work there. Of how little respect it has for its workforce, without whom they have no business.

Employers have more than enough tools at their disposal to be able to find the ideal candidate, and they hold the upper hand in terms of employment rights, especially for the first 2 years.

To make people also work for free, for the benefit of the bussiness, is downright degrading.