Mandatory Work Activity - Anyone done it?

The_ICT_Engineer

Cambridgeshire

imatt

I stopped off at the local Tesco's early this morning (2.00am), There was a bit of a barney going on, Seems many of the night staff had just been told they are losing their Job's, To be replaced by freebee's?. There already quite a few in the store now.

If losing thier jobs, (which is odd considering its Christmas) then that's bad news. Bad news but maybe not too newsworthy. However, IF they are being replaced by workfare participants, then that's something else. These staff really ought to organise as many meetings with the local and national media as possible about it. I know I would!

Gooble_2

Sorry to jump in unannounced but wanted to say that whatever was overheard at Tesco was almost certainly either misheard or misunderstood.

MWA placements must be community based such as charities or council intiatives and the suchlike not commercial ventures. It is possible to place MWA in businesses but ONLY in exceptional cases. A placement in Tesco is highly unlikely to meet the criteria.

Equally, as the MWA is limited to a maximum of 30hrs per week for 4 weeks it would hardly appeal to Tesco - They aren't going to keep training people just to lose them a few weeks later. It would be a big drain on their rescources.

Interestingly, Tesco as a company are very resistant to work placements and work trials so I can't see them being the least bit interested in MWA.

I would suggest that the likelihood is that the staff overheard are Xmas temps discussing being let go after the festive season.

WPN

Gooble wrote: »

Sorry to jump in unannounced but wanted to say that whatever was overheard at Tesco was almost certainly either misheard or misunderstood.

MWA placements must be community based such as charities or council intiatives and the suchlike not commercial ventures. It is possible to place MWA in businesses but ONLY in exceptional cases. A placement in Tesco is highly unlikely to meet the criteria.

Equally, as the MWA is limited to a maximum of 30hrs per week for 4 weeks it would hardly appeal to Tesco - They aren't going to keep training people just to lose them a few weeks later. It would be a big drain on their rescources.

Interestingly, Tesco as a company are very resistant to work placements and work trials so I can't see them being the least bit interested in MWA.

I would suggest that the likelihood is that the staff overheard are Xmas temps discussing being let go after the festive season.

Noooo

Tesco's (former) CEO got knighted for providing so many work placements for New Deal... (..for services of reducing official unemployment statistic counts - well thats not what they said, probably for food... in fact the 1500 pledged placements was the highest). Tesco also takes placements for Work Experience (the scheme) and the Work Programme. They took placements under Flexible New Deal.

Rarely do people at Tesco get let go.. maybe they are long-timers?

How I understand it: Tesco have a clever way of its employment especially in recent times... majority of staff employed are part time with 10 hours or something silly... the rest offered/worked is practically overtime... This is to avoid contractually being responsible for so many hours... these free workers soak up hours... if an employee is relatively new they will be sacked, if they can take tesco to tribunal... they will drop the "overtime" and leave the employee with something silly like 6-10 hours but spread over as many days (i.e. 3-6) to make it unreasonable, hoping the employee will walk... its not always the case, I heard different things from different people... it might vary on location and how you got the job (placement, xmas temp, application) and whether you are in education or not. The rates of pay are pretty reasonable especially if working out of hours... but can be very unsociable.

Coco_H

Gooble wrote: »

Sorry to jump in unannounced but wanted to say that whatever was overheard at Tesco was almost certainly either misheard or misunderstood.

MWA placements must be community based such as charities or council intiatives and the suchlike not commercial ventures. It is possible to place MWA in businesses but ONLY in exceptional cases. A placement in Tesco is highly unlikely to meet the criteria.

Equally, as the MWA is limited to a maximum of 30hrs per week for 4 weeks it would hardly appeal to Tesco - They aren't going to keep training people just to lose them a few weeks later. It would be a big drain on their rescources.

Interestingly, Tesco as a company are very resistant to work placements and work trials so I can't see them being the least bit interested in MWA.

I would suggest that the likelihood is that the staff overheard are Xmas temps discussing being let go after the festive season.

You're correct that MWA is for charitable organizations only, but I believe the WP and work fare can place you with private companies such as Tesco, Poundland or Primark for work placement.

darkfae

To be fair, I have just been referred by my JC advisor. However, am still trying to fathom her logic for referring me.

The aims of MWA, according to their guidelines, are "to help customers move closer to the labour market, enabling them to establish the discipline and habits of working life... while delivering a contribution to the local community"

However, for the past 3 months, I have been volunteering (of my own volition) for a local charity therapy centre, in addition to being given therapist priviledges one day a week. (as I am just starting up I am not earning enough that I can afford to come off JSA, but always make sure that anything I earn is declared). It's within walking distance from my home and means that, as a single parent, I am able to make the school run without fear of being late for either the job I am doing or to collect my 6yr old from school.

My advisor told me that it wasn't optional - she HAD to refer me for this activity. As a result, the lacement found for me was in a charity shop. As a result, if I have to begin this MWA placement, I am effectively being told to stop doing something that is worthwhile, helping me and directly helping the community...... to do something else which, although benefits the community, only does so in an indirect way, doesn't provide me with anything I'm not getting anyway, and prevents me from buiolding up my client base enough that it will enable me to stop claiming JSA.

I asked what her criteria was for referring me and was informed that it was because I have been out of work for such a long time. When I reminded her of what I was already doing, her response was that I "could be doing volunteer work indefinitely so it doesn't mean anything" and that as I didn't necesarily have any clients booked in for the following week (lots choose to have a treatment as a bit of an impulse) apparently it doesn't count as I can't just coast along on one day's work a week indefinitely. I mentioned it to the Centre Manager of my current volunteering place this morning and she was gobsmacked.