TESCO = SCUM

Off-topic
41

The population of this place does need to toughen up a bit . To many soft handed do fuckalls . I would make em work for nothing cleaning ditches on motorways . I left school at 16 before my exams and went away sailing round the artic circle for 5 years … came back a marine engineer and diver with the ability to navigate a ship … a valuable skill set . I hade no more smarts than the next guy but I was willing to suffer pain and bleed to get what I wanted . Yess back in my day … ships men wood steel youngsters grrrrrrrrrrr :smiley:

Why get angry at fat cats ? They did the work to get them there . Put in the hours ,made the decisions , fought there way up the ladder and now enjoy the rewards . Fair play to them I say . And if you can find a way to get even more and rip it out the taxpayers pocket in all directions … Well … I don’t blame the fat cats they are doing what they do … Seeing an opportunity . Blame the goverment, fat cats can only play with what woolly legislation string they are given .

42

Hahaha, and you are defending it by aggressively bible bashing members on a biker forum? :slight_smile: Kaos, whilst I agree with some of your human rights lawyer opinions on many things that crop up on this forum, I don’t think that by brandishing people constantly is actively doing anything. Tell me, what are you doing to tackle the system that favours the scum bag?

43

I don’t see pulling people up who give support to what we all know is wrong as “brandishing” them or bashing them, I don’t think it is fair of you to claim that whenever your opinion is questioned that it is done aggressively. Have I used any aggressive language at all? No, I capitalised some words to give them emphasis but I don’t see that as being aggressive. Could easily argue that you are being passive aggressive by making the claim that anyone that questions your opinion is “bashing” you, thus making your opinions unassailable.

Public opinion is the issue here, and pulling people up on what they are saying on a public forum is a legitimate way to change opinion, I would hope that after thinking about it for a moment you would realise that you were repeating a media driven idea that all unemployed people are lazy and don’t do anything and decided that you won’t be doing that again in the future. I certainly hope that is the case.

As to what I am doing, what do you want from me exactly? Should I start a personal revolution on my own? Should I storm Parliament with a spoon?

And if I don’t, should I not be entitled to an opinion and to question the opinions of others?

In fact I probably do more than a lot of people due to knowing the law and helping people by giving advice on housing issues, employment issues, consumer rights issues, education issues and debt issues.

44

I still can’t see how free labour is a good thing, it’s startling to read. It totally devalues the jobs market also and puts less money into the public’s hands! Tesco keep their billions and people work for nothing, no stimulation to the local economy at all.

Show me the examples of so called “oiks” and whatever other ghastly expressions you want to call the unemployed getting their comeuppance. Because there’s plenty of people sharing stories like that young woman who was pulled off meaningful voluntary work to work in Poundland stacking shelves for their christmas rush. Oh course she’s some layabout oik, spent three years studying and was trying to get a skillset to match her future job options until it was derailed by some ghoulish bollocks.

45

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/18/tesco-jobless-scheme-work-experience

46

Tesco says the advert was a JC+ IT error, Tesco also say they never expected the scheme would be anything other than voluntary with no threat of benefit removal. And now we are seeing other big names pulling out ofthe Government scheme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-politics-17086526

What are my thoughts. Well I think these corporations have more scruples and standards than the Tory government have! You see it is just so typical right wing, threats to work or else, picking on the vulnerable who can’t fight back, and telling the public one thing but doing another.

Conservatives, the people who want to bring back Victorian values to employers and Dickensian conditions to the working class.

47

I think this is about PR rather than scruples or morals.

48

I don’t know. I’ve met some horrendous managers in my time, and some really worth respecting. You can never tell what you might get.

But I know once a bastard always a bastard, which is why the companies who pulled out have because of concerns, and the Tories are still saying it’s a great program, because they remain bastards. :slight_smile:

49

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-17084634

50

Whereas I find it disgusting that some people think that they are owed a living by the state for absolutely nothing. My solution would be civil service for the intelligent, street cleaning for the dullards. But I see the Tescos option as perfectly acceptable in the meantime. As I understand the scheme, it is not state subsidised employment, it is state funded work experience placements that may lead to full time employment if the applicant is suitable.

As to your example, I think you will find that holiday work experience (‘Vac Schemes’) are commonplace in the professional industries. As much as anything it is seeing how you fit in to the office environment. Some you get paid for, some you don’t, but competition is ridiculous. And as to who gets the job, loads-a-money might prove himself to be a monied idiot, whereas the employer might like the grit and determination of Mr Barkeep. Employment is always going to be a bit more than just what goes down on paper. What goes down on paper gets you in the door. Who you are and how you operate stops you from going out the door.

51

@Bobzilla that may lead to full time employment if the applicant is suitable

As to your example, I think you will find that holiday work experience (‘Vac Schemes’) are commonplace in the professional industries.


Except that in those circumstances there is almost always a job available at the end of it. Linklaters a top 5 Golden Circle law firm offer Vac schemes, but they also have guaranteed places for LPTC students, and a VERY high take-up of students that attend the Vac Scheme.

Companies don’t run Vac schemes that cost them a considerable amount of time and money just to get some free labour, which is what this is, considering the company didn’t even need to have a job available to take advantage of the scheme.

52

Collateralise the pension liabilities? Don’t be stupid. Even if there was enough assets to be able to do that, there wouldn’t be enough government cash to do that. Leave it to the future to worry about.

53

Don’t disagree. However, I know plenty of people who have proved themselves completely incompetant and workshy on vac schemes. I also know some who have screwed their bosses and got job offers immediately.

But don’t believe the guarantees. In my year, a whole load of trainees had contracts withdrawn whilst doing the LPC, and more still were told 'here’s £10k, sod off for the year, go travelling, and we can defer our contracts and stop hiring for a year.

54

You are also comparing apples and oranges here a bit.

If someone said, you have the chance of a job that exists that can earn you anything from 40k to 100k a year if you prove yourself, but you have to come in for a number of weeks with little to no pay.

No one is going to complain.

No one moans at the Apprentice for forcing those poor people to work for nothing for the chance of a 100k a year job.

This is telling people to come in for 8 weeks, for nothing, with no guarantee that a job even exists for them to take at the end of it, regardless of how well they perform and it is menial labour work, which doesn’t require work experience.

55

At least these guys received some sort of immortality for their ‘stacking’.

Most of the stuff the Tesco slaves stack will either be eaten or thrown away.:satisfied:

BTW I have an opportunity for a slave. If you want to learn how to clean a bike (and for that matter you might as well vacuum the house while you’re at it) then look no further…who knows what this amazing opportunity might lead to in the future (not cash, obviously :wink: )

56

I haven’t been on the boards lately but was browsing round and found this topic. Funnily enough I recently moved jobs and joined Tesco head office. The below is an email that was sent out this morning to all of us, thought I’d post it up for you guys to have a read…


Tesco offers choice on work experience
You may have seen media reports about our involvement in the Government’s work experience scheme. I thought it would be helpful to provide some background and to update you on an announcement we have made today.

We have a strong record of providing opportunities for young people. We employ over 70,000 young people in the UK – a quarter of our workforce. We invest in their training and development, for example through our apprenticeship scheme, and give them the opportunity to build a rewarding career at Tesco. Work experience also has a part to play, enabling young people to gain experience of the workplace and hopefully find a permanent job at the end of it. This is vital at a time when a record number of young people are struggling to find work.

The Government launched a voluntary scheme last year to give young people a chance to gain work experience while still receiving their benefits. We signed up to the scheme alongside many other major employers, offering 3,000 placements. We have delivered 1,400 placements so far, and 300 young people have gone on to get a job with us as a result.

However, a growing campaign has been waged against the scheme by some political groups who claim wrongly that the scheme is not voluntary and that employers are using it as a source of free labour.

The Government and a number of commentators have come out in defence of the scheme, explaining that it is voluntary, provides valuable experience, and has in many cases led to participants finding permanent work.

Nonetheless, we do not want anyone to doubt our motives or our commitment to helping young people at a time of record unemployment. So we have announced that from now on any young person accepted for work experience with Tesco will be offered a choice:

To participate in the Government scheme, which protects their benefits for the duration of the four-week placement.
Alternatively, to be paid by Tesco for the four-week placement, with a guaranteed permanent job at the end of it, provided they complete the placement satisfactorily.
We have also suggested to the government that, to avoid any doubt that the scheme is voluntary, they should remove a rule under which a young person who starts but does not complete a placement risks losing benefits as a result.

This new approach is good news for young people, and we are confident that it will lead to more of them finding a job and a rewarding career with Tesco.
David North
UK Corporate Affairs Director

57

But you don’t find it disgusting that a corporation wants something for nothing either?

58

The odds are not great. Let’s re-word that email slightly. Let’s take the view that all 1,100 people finished their placement, as we have no information one way or another. Take the view that this will be a 48 hour week, it could be less, but it doesn’t really matter the final statement would remain the same.

Tesco has made use of 1,100 menial workers at no cost to them beyond expenses, on full time jobs, for at least 4 weeks, with little to no benefit to the employee at the end of the placement.

That is over 200,000 man hours that Tesco has had for basically free. That would be just short of 100 full time employees for a year, paid for by the taxpayer.

Doesn’t quite sound as good does it? It now sounds as if large employers are taking advantage of a Government scheme to gain free labour.

I didn’t change any of the facts in the piece, just focused on the numbers of failures, and used arbitrary numbers of working hours, even at a 40 hour week it is still 175,000 man hours, and it is still just short of 100 full time employees.

Maybe Tesco went into this with the right intentions, but the fact that they have received man hours equal to almost 100 full time employees for a year, which at £15k a year (top wage that Tesco pays for Shelf Stackers) is £1.5m saved, doesn’t really paint that as the main reason.

This is a corporate identity looking to save money in every way it can, and it just managed to save £1.5m on staffing costs.

I am not sure why we shouldn’t believe that this was the whole point of joining the scheme for Tesco and other major businesses, and it is only the bad PR that has led to many of them dropping out.

59

This has been a long and heated debate but here are three points for those who condemn Tesco to considerIt is true that experiecne as a shelf stacker does not lead to high level skills. But it does allow an umployed person to demonstrate some core capabilities. These include turning up on time every day for a few weeks, working throughout a whole shift, working as part of a team, being civil to colleagues and customers, being willing to take orders, completing tasks to a minimum standard. These are not trivial things and many unemployed people are unemployed becuase they find them so challenging.Tesco is participating in a Government programme designed to provide experience of entry level jobs. For the long term unemployed shelf stacking is a respectable ambition and it makes sense to give them the opportunity to show they can do it. The proof of this is that Tesco say they have offered permanent jobs to more than a third of those who have participated. The protesters have almost certainly won - once the current committments have been honoured I doubt that Tesco or any other prominent employer will do this again. Why waste time and money trying to help people when this is the thanks you get? The losers of course are the unemployed who will find it even more dififcult to break into paid employment. As the saying goes “be careful about what you wish for”

60

Well by the figures above it is less than 25%, which is not a third.

As to wasting time and money…they have saved up to £1.5m in staffing costs by using labour that is unpaid. Not quite sure how they have wasted money there?

As to the experience aspect, I agree, but why not teach them what it is like to get a decent wage as well? Surely paying someone will be far more of an incentive for them to continue working, then having someone work for basically nothing. Once someone gets a wage for 4-8 weeks and sees the advantage of having money, what they can do with it, where they can go, what they can buy, this will…hopefully…instil in them a desire to continue working and to continue earning a wage to continue in that lifestyle, a lifestyle they may never have experienced.

e2a…it is more than that, because even for the people they offered jobs to, the 300, they still had their man hours for the duration of the placement for next to nothing, but I didn’t include them in the calculation because I didn’t want to get into the messy part of balancing what those people received against what Tesco received…ie a permanent job at the end of it.