Long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid stewards during the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge. They told the Guardian they had to change into security gear in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.
Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London. A spokesman said the unpaid work was a trial for paid roles at the Olympics, which it had also won a contract to staff. Unpaid staff were expected to work two days out of the three-day holiday. The charity Tomorrow's People, which set up the placements at Close Protection under the work programme, said that unpaid work was valuable and made people more employable.
Meanwhile, the government plans to double the number of prisoners being paid to work while still behind bars. Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary, has told officials he wants to see nearly 20,000 convicts – twice the number of people currently employed by Starbucks in the UK – carrying out regular work in prison within 10 years. Such a large increase in cheap prison labour would adversely affect the job market in surrounding areas. Prisoners are not paid the minimum wage, and labour contracts seen by the investigative website Exaro News show companies are typically paying prisons the equivalent of around £2 an hour for prisoners' labour (Most convicts are paid much less, with the prisons taking a variable amount of their salary). At this wage level, the unions say, companies may choose to outsource jobs to prisons which might otherwise go to the unemployed. Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said allowing companies to pay so little was both "exploitative" of prisoners and risked damaging the wider economy. "We have concerns about simply using prisoners as 'cheap labour' for companies to cut their costs," he said. "Many prison are based in parts of the country which are very deprived and there is a real risk that companies will choose to go for the cheapest option and outsource work to prison."
Exaro found a growing number of companies doing business in prisons. Among them Calpac, a food packaging company, which increased its contract with Kirkham prison from £34,321 in 2010 to £154,267. The company payroll showed that the highest-paid job is office manager – £40 for a 40-hour week. A "manual packing operative" was paid just 55p an hour. The payroll shows that many of the prisoners work overtime, taking them up to 60 hours a week. Mike Perry, a director of Calpac, is quoted by One3one saying: "The costs of setting up a business within a prison are considerably lower." Caroline Onwuna, another of the company's directors, told Exaro: "If I moved my business on to the outside, I would be using machines not people."
Speedy Hire, the tool-hire company, reduced its workforce by 800 and closed 75 depots in 2010. It has since increased the size of its prison contract – to service the machines it hires out – by around 10 per cent, paying Erlestoke, Garth and Pentonville prisons £114,012 for the services of almost 100 prisoners during 2010-11
The government has rebranded the old Prison Industries Unit as a new body called One3one Solutions and is offering interested companies the chance of "utilising a workforce of motivated prisoners"
Mark Johnson, a former prisoner, founder of User Voice, a charity working to reduce re-offending, explains "The real issue is that it's all about employment in prison rather than employability. Sending prisoners to work in sweatshops might quench the public appetite for justice, but it's only a short-term fix. Education and treatment in prison needs to be incentivised as much as employment. The Government rhetoric about work might sound good but it's just a smokescreen."
Close Protection UK confirmed that it was using up to 30 unpaid staff and 50 apprentices, who were paid £2.80 an hour, for the three-day event in London. A spokesman said the unpaid work was a trial for paid roles at the Olympics, which it had also won a contract to staff. Unpaid staff were expected to work two days out of the three-day holiday. The charity Tomorrow's People, which set up the placements at Close Protection under the work programme, said that unpaid work was valuable and made people more employable.
Meanwhile, the government plans to double the number of prisoners being paid to work while still behind bars. Ken Clarke, the Justice Secretary, has told officials he wants to see nearly 20,000 convicts – twice the number of people currently employed by Starbucks in the UK – carrying out regular work in prison within 10 years. Such a large increase in cheap prison labour would adversely affect the job market in surrounding areas. Prisoners are not paid the minimum wage, and labour contracts seen by the investigative website Exaro News show companies are typically paying prisons the equivalent of around £2 an hour for prisoners' labour (Most convicts are paid much less, with the prisons taking a variable amount of their salary). At this wage level, the unions say, companies may choose to outsource jobs to prisons which might otherwise go to the unemployed. Steve Gillan, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said allowing companies to pay so little was both "exploitative" of prisoners and risked damaging the wider economy. "We have concerns about simply using prisoners as 'cheap labour' for companies to cut their costs," he said. "Many prison are based in parts of the country which are very deprived and there is a real risk that companies will choose to go for the cheapest option and outsource work to prison."
Exaro found a growing number of companies doing business in prisons. Among them Calpac, a food packaging company, which increased its contract with Kirkham prison from £34,321 in 2010 to £154,267. The company payroll showed that the highest-paid job is office manager – £40 for a 40-hour week. A "manual packing operative" was paid just 55p an hour. The payroll shows that many of the prisoners work overtime, taking them up to 60 hours a week. Mike Perry, a director of Calpac, is quoted by One3one saying: "The costs of setting up a business within a prison are considerably lower." Caroline Onwuna, another of the company's directors, told Exaro: "If I moved my business on to the outside, I would be using machines not people."
Speedy Hire, the tool-hire company, reduced its workforce by 800 and closed 75 depots in 2010. It has since increased the size of its prison contract – to service the machines it hires out – by around 10 per cent, paying Erlestoke, Garth and Pentonville prisons £114,012 for the services of almost 100 prisoners during 2010-11
The government has rebranded the old Prison Industries Unit as a new body called One3one Solutions and is offering interested companies the chance of "utilising a workforce of motivated prisoners"
Mark Johnson, a former prisoner, founder of User Voice, a charity working to reduce re-offending, explains "The real issue is that it's all about employment in prison rather than employability. Sending prisoners to work in sweatshops might quench the public appetite for justice, but it's only a short-term fix. Education and treatment in prison needs to be incentivised as much as employment. The Government rhetoric about work might sound good but it's just a smokescreen."
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