Tag Archives: Work Must Pay

2015-09-18-porter-house

Members of the Work Must Pay campaign group outside The Porterhouse on Nassau Street, Dublin in September, after the company advertised for a Restaurant Operations Manager through JobBridge. The job advert was later removed and Work Must Pay received confirmation that The Porterhouse would no longer advertise through JobBridge 

You may recall the campaign group Work Must Pay.

Its members have been protesting outside businesses which use JobBridge to hire staff.

Well.

The group has ceased campaigning in Dublin…for now.

They write:

“A brief scroll through the #WMP Campaign Updates page will provide enough evidence to show that directly challenging businesses was a very effective way of knocking out JobBridge placements.”

“The reasons for this were established in correspondence with exploiters where it became apparent that: (1) most were taking on a JobBridge intern because they didn’t expect it to become public knowledge, (2) they regarded free labour as an entitlement because their competitors also used it. Making it public knowledge that a company was using JobBridge usually shook their confidence and then the subsequent #WMP protest convinced them that it really wasn’t worth it.”

“…Our FOI request highlighted that over 16 thousand businesses and organisations have used JobBridge interns. This points towards an endemic level of exploitation which has permeated every sector of employment and even included unionised workplaces.”

“We never claimed that #WMP was a solution; just that it would eliminate internships, build confidence among young activists and educate young workers about their rights. However, a response to this problem is still badly needed nationally.”

“Many unions have publicly condemned JobBridge but their organised workplaces have used interns and these employers haven’t been challenged. It is obvious that this situation needs to be remedied immediately.”

“Regarding political parties, the danger is that JobBridge will not be abolished but ‘reformed’ into a ‘fairer’ system down the line. We view this as an unacceptable argument as unpaid labour has lowered the bar so far that young workers now aspire to a minimum wage and view anything above it as an unexpected bonus.”

“The very nature of work, what we expect from it and our rights has been changed by JobBridge.”

#WorkMustPay: A Campaign Ends, The Struggle Remains (Work Must Pay)

Previously: You Pay Noodles

gleeson:burton

Frank Gleeson (left) with Joan Burton

 

On Today with Sean O’Rourke on RTÉ Radio One this morning, Keelin Shanley discussed JobBridge with Frank Gleeson, chairman of Retail Ireland and Managing Director at Aramark Food Services, and Laura Duggan, from Work Must Pay.

Mr Gleeson quoted figures he said came from the Department of Social Protection. To wit:

“[We’ve had] 17,500 host organisations. We’ve had 55% of internships advertised have been filled – so that’s a huge success. And we’ve almost had 42,000 people, young jobseekers, actually commence JobBridge with 37,000 completing it. And if you look at the progression from that, almost after 5 months, I think something like 60 per cent of them have gone on to get full-time or employment generally.”

However

Laura Duggan, from Work Must Pay, responded:

“Well according to the National Youth Council of Ireland, only 27% of JobBridge, people who complete JobBridge, actually go on and complete full-time employment. The rest of them end up in temporary, part-time or seasonal work.”

We don’t see [JobBridge] as the root of all evil or anything, it’s just a symptom of  much broader problems that are facing workers and unemployed people and young people in general.

But it’s a deeply, deeply flawed system when you’re talking about combating youth unemployment and when you’re talking about the likes of job replacement and job displacement.

JobBridge is being used by the likes of the HSE, all levels of Government and even the guards. People go in and do their nine-month internship with these companies, they’re not going to get work because there’s an employment embargo, it’s being used to fill, paper over cracks essentially by these groups.

We have companies, where we’ve protested, that have a track record of advertising for entry-level positions right up until the introduction of JobBridge in 2011. All these entry-level positions are no longer publicly advertised – you have to do your nine-month JobBridge before they’ll offer you it. You can’t go in to these companies any other way, you have to do your nine months of free labour.”

FIGHT!

Listen back here

Previously: You Pay Noodles

Work Must Pay