[Reblogged from Johnny Void
, with thanks]
A protest is planned in Liverpool outside the premises of waste collection firm Bulky Bobs after it was revealed that the so-called social enterprise are using workfare.
Bulky Bobs have a contract with Liverpool City Council to collect large items of household waste. This is the kind of work which was once carried out by local authorities but is now outsourced to the private and voluntary sectors. Bulky Bobs drive round in vans proudly emblazoned with the council’s logo. But according to the Liverpool branch of the IWW Union, many of the people doing this work are not getting paid:
“[…] there is one paid manager in the store (who used to work for the company that is now LearnDirect which is one of the major ‘providers’) and the rest of the staff are on workfare or ‘volunteers’. Likewise, the connected company FRC (Furniture Resource Centre) has a warehouse on Brunswick Dock which runs on workfare, as do its vans which collect and deliver to Bulky Bobs.”
FRC Ltd, who own Bulky Bobs, say in this report (pdf), that they made 11 posts redundant in 2012/13, including operational staff. In a clear indication of workfare being used to replace paid jobs, in the same document they admit forcing people to work for no wages on the Mandatory Work Activity scheme. Even more appallingly, they say they are receiving tax-payers money to go with their free forced workers.
Of course they don’t admit this on their barely functioning shit website where they lie that placements are voluntary:
The IWW will be holding a protest outside Bulky Bob’s shop on London Road, Liverpool on Saturday 22nd November at 11am and have called on people to join them. Please help by sharing the facebook page and in the meantime everone’s piling in on twitter @BulkyBobsLtd
Related – TUC: Only 1 in every 40 new jobs created since 2008 are Full-time jobs
Reply from FRC:
“We informed Learn Direct early last week that we no longer wanted to take part in the programme and the final group of people placed here finish on Friday. We will then have no further participation in the scheme. We’d be happy to sign the pledge (KVV) on Monday once the last placements have left.”