THE WORK PROGRAMME: AN ATTACK ON BOTH THE UNEMPLOYED AND WAGES OF THE EMPLOYED

                                                                     
                                                                     
                                                                     
                                            
The Work Programme
NO TO SLAVE LABOUR
Let's get organised to resist the Work Programme and all “work-for-your-benefits” schemes

Workfare – the idea that claimants should work for their benefits now that capitalist economic crisis and corporate moves to exploit Far Eastern cheap labour has thrown them on the dole – was imported from the USA by the last Labour Government under the guise of the Flexible New Deal.  Naturally, the ConDems have picked up this nasty anti-claimant baton and have refined it as the Work Programme, pledging to throw £5 billion at the corporate vultures waiting to feed on our misfortune.

So, with an unemployment rate of 8.4%, with 2.68 million officially unemployed (with a further 2.4 million out of work but not showing on registered statistics) and the Office of National Statistics showing one vacancy for every 10 jobseekers, the unemployed are going to be ‘retrained’ and ‘job-prepared’ to fit in with a national media-spun narrative that they’re only on the dole because they’re workshy. And helping them into this fantasy world of millions of job vacancies will be such “philanthropic” organisations as G4S (AKA Group 4 Security – fresh from their abysmal failure in running Britain’s private prisons.) (Unemployment figures from January 2012).

Keep in mind the context of these moves: the vast majority of us are unemployed involuntarily; many of us find ourselves with the wrong skills in the wrong place thanks to the machinations of the rich and powerful ( we can all see that there is plenty of work needing to be done in housing, infrastructure ,welfare, production etc but capitalism can’t make profit out of such socially necessary work); the housing market makes it difficult for us to move; some of us are too ill to work.
Despite all the hot air, the Work Programme has nothing to do with helping us into meaningful work, or helping us ‘back into society’. Its aims are to cut the welfare budget, and to attack wages, providing cheap disciplined labour. Providers have been given a ‘black box’ contract – no mandated requirement to do specific things whilst ‘training’: they are free to do whatever they think necessary and sanctions, beginning at loss of all benefit for two weeks, progressing to 6 months, can be applied for ‘non-compliance’. (And as we’ve seen with private provider A4E  in Edinburgh, 'non-compliance' can mean turning up for interview with an accompanying representative, as A4e try to deny this basic right).

ANOTHER ATTACK ON CLAIMANTS
And to supplement the attacks of the Work Programme, the government have added the Mandatory Work Activity programme so claimants, within days of signing on , can:
- Be forced to work 30 hours per week for 4 weeks for their benefits – which means at £2.25 per hour.
- The 30 hours can cover 7 days a week, so they can be made to work weekends.
- Face up to 4 such ‘activities’ per year.
- Be sent to work unrelated to the claimant’s work goals, or their past experience or qualifications.
Be ‘sanctioned’ (ie lose all benefits) for an INITIAL period of 13 weeks, rising to 6 months, for ‘non-compliance’ (eg lateness)
Be able to appeal this only within a 5 day period (unlike the old 30 day system).
The decision to refer to an ‘activity’ will be at the discretion of the DWP adviser – who we now know, thanks to a Guardian investigation, is subject to targets that have to be met. The pretence that any of this is anything to do with training or support has been stripped away. Claimants will have no right to withdraw their labour and no right to the National Minimum Wage. 

And all of this comes at a time of rising unemployment. The IMF has said that even if (a very big ‘if’!) the UK economy recovers, structural unemployment will remain at 6.8% - which means 2 million permanently on the dole.

At a time when education and training is under threat, and housing benefit and other public services and benefits are being cut, this is a double pronged attack by the state on our conditions:
1 – It’s an attack on ALL wages, creating a pool of ultra cheap labour with no right to industrial action.
2 – An attack on already savaged benefits as ‘sanctions’ will rocket.

WHAT CAN WE DO ?

If you are sent on the Work Programme, don't be bullied by the company running the scheme, known as the provider (in Edinburgh these are A4e, Ingeus and JHP).  Stand up for yourself.
Take a friend or advisor with you to any important appointments.
With solidarity support from us, claimants attending A4E and Ingeus have won the right to change their advisor.
We have successfully fought attempts to have claimants sanctioned.
With our support, claimants have got the provider to agree they don't need to attend so often.
If the provider says you have to work for your benefits and you don't want to do it – you could object.  The DWP has stated that the Work Programme does not necessarily involve work placements and any placements should be agreed between the provider and the claimant (contact us for a copy of the relevant DWP letter).  We can back you up over this.
Plus you could ask the provider about insurance at your work placement, what happens if you have an accident, or if you are involved in an accident in which another worker or a member of the public is injured (eg in a shop)?
If you are forced into slave labour against your will, remember it's not your fault if you are a very incompetent worker, drop things and make lots of mistakes......
Alternatively, you could insist that you will only agree to a placement in an area of work which interests you and where you will receive some proper training.
You could insist that instead of working for your benefits you prefer training or a college course.
To make it difficult for the provider to money out of you, you can decline to fill in the Information Disclosure form which gives the provider permission to share your personal data with any future employer and with the DWP. You can do this without endangering your benefits – ask us for our special leaflet on this. (See also: http://www.consent.me.uk/ )
If the job centre sends you on Mandatory Work Activity, contest the decision, contact us for support.
We are starting a campaign to persuade/ pressurise charities and other employers to boycott the Work Programme and similar schemes – get in touch if you would like to get involved. Let us know which workplaces are using this unpaid forced labour.
We appeal to all workers to pressure their employer to boycott workfare – these schemes attack everyone's wages and conditions.

Some of us have been sent on the Work Programme and we want to encourage unemployed people to join together to support each other and fight to improve our situation – get in touch if you're interested. 

We will support anyone who wants to stand up for their rights against these injustices – see below for how to get in touch.

Let's make workfare unworkable!

Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty
c/o Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh  (ACE), 17 West Montgomery Place,  Edinburgh EH7 5HA
ecap@lists.riseup.net www.edinburghagainstpoverty.org.uk        
Open meetings: last Thursday of month at A.C.E. at 7.30pm. Drop-in advice and solidarity at ACE every tuesday 12 – 3pm Tel 0131 557 6242 - Tues aftn only