KUWG Congress House demo, Mon 6 Oct, 1-2pm, kicks off KUWG's input to Boycott Workfare Week of Action

Mon 6 oct 1 - 2 pm, TUC Congress House

23-28 Great Russell St, London WC1B 3LS

(nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road)

Then 3 - 4 pm at CBI, 78 Cannon St, London EC4N 6HN (tube: Bank)

On Mon 6 Oct, we are finally holding our first protest during Boycott Workfare’s week of action: http://www.boycottworkfare.org/?p=3736

It first started on 1 Aug. That’s when the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Confederation of British Industries (CBI) jointly announced, under the guise of “traineeships”, to back workfare! [1]

Even unionised Jobcentre staff (members of Public & Commercial Services Union, PCS) have publicly condemned this deal:

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/pcs_comment/index.cfm/tuc-statement-on-traineeships-condemned

Because instead of demanding decent wages, TUC & CBI will supply McDonalds, Toyota, Virgin Media, BT, Vodafone, Phones4U, Siemens, Capita, local councils & many more [2] with unpaid staff for up to 6 months on benefits alone [3] without any obligations to hire them!

How much leave will, say,  billionaire Sir Richard Branson of Virgin give his slave labour? Branson profits through workfare and networking at taxpayer's expense, treating a throughput of 'work experience' fodder as slave labour and treating staff of his throwaway companies as easily expendable. How Virgin Healthy is that?

Knowing first hand how unemployed people get harassed into workfare, get declined lunch & travel expenses to such workfares, get sanctioned or threatened with sanctions either during workfares or if they oppose them, we know that, no matter how much TUC denies this, TUC is now backing Workfare!

Join our protest to end this shoddy deal with Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG) - many of whom are members of Unite Community Union.

Mon 6 oct 1 - 2 pm, TUC Congress House

23-28 Great Russell St, London WC1B 3LS

(nearest tube: Tottenham Court Road)

Then 3 - 4 pm at CBI, 78 Cannon St, London EC4N 6HN (tube: Bank)

We demand from TUC:

• Terminate Traineeship deal with CBI & make it public!
• Always consult your unemployed members before making decisions over our heads.
• Don’t get involved in any workplace negotiations unless real wages & decent working conditions are offered. 

Link to Danny Dorling's New Statesman article 'Generation Jobless'

We demand from CBI:

• Terminate Traineeships & make it public!
• Offer real jobs at decent wages & working conditions, not “work experience placements”.
• End corporate scrounging - stop exploiting the young & unemployed at tax payers’ expense!  

[1] http://www.tuc.org.uk/industrial-issues/skills-policy/tuc-and-cbi-agree-joint-statement-traineeships

http://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2014/08/tuc-and-cbi-agree-joint-statement-on-traineeships/

[2] Download “List of eligible providers for the traineeship programme” here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/traineeships-eligible-providers

[3] See pages 25 - 26 https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/279752/operational_traineeship_supplementary_information.pdf

TUC Welfare Conference 27 February 2015

Kwug was there!  

From a Star Blogger in the Making (She has been tentatively dubbed 'Can-Do Cat Woman' though she claims that she has no idea what her 'byline' should be.)

Welfare conference at Trade Union Congress on Friday 27 February 2015 — Outline Summary

11.00-11.30 am:  

We were welcome by Kevin Flynn, Chair Trade Union Congress NCCUW (National Coombine for Centres for Unemployed Workers?)

1. Introduction of Helen Flanagan (PCS): Vice President of the DWP Group of Public & Commercial Services Union who is responsible for Jobcentre issues.
2. Introduction of Eleanor Firman (Disabled People Against the Cuts) who is a member of  the DPAC Steering Committee and Unite Community.

11.30 am: Workshops:

KUWG members who assisted at the Welfare Conference were Alan, Ben, Gisele, Joan, Abby, Liam, Leigh and Pauline. (Robin was one of the organisers.) There were about 100 people who attended the conference and these were divided into four groups:

1-Sanctions, Conditionality and Work Capability Assessment.

In this group people  shared their experience on how to challenge sanctions and the reasons behind sanctions.  A jobcentre’ Adviser apologised for the inhuman application of jobcentre policy. 

People present included among others, 

• DPACactive members,
• Boycott Workfare
• London Coalition Against Poverty (Mohammed),
  some members of PCS,
• a disabled claimant and
• similar group as ours and many more.  

2- Contribution or a right? Who gets what benefits, when and why?

The group looked at contribution schemes and debated on unconditional basic income. How can we achieve real economy and social equality?  People on the whole have accepted that there should be a safety net for everyone.

3- Work: Workfare, internship, apprenticeship and traineeships.

The group looked at the  government workfare which exploits and undermines employed workers. They also debated on how we could challenge such procedures, the defending of workers' rights and free education. Everyone agreed that volunteering and training should be voluntary and proper jobs should be paid, with over 100 charities signing against mandatory workfare.

4- Equality: Making it a reality in Welfare.

They looked at the Increase of discrimination and multiple problems that have been created through the stigma that politicians and the media have brought up around benefit claimants. And how it resulted for the most vulnerable in losing touch with services and other issues such as socialising (being marginalised). 

 

They concluded that we should implement services to help with more complex needs especially for those who can’t communicate or are unable to move because of their physical disability.

12.45: Feedback from workshops with what should be included in the DWP legislation (the combination of all the above workshops).

13.30. Lunch

After lunch pictures were taken from the group in front of TUC offices with the banner against benefit sanctions.

14.15: Plenary.

Short history of the UWC (Unemployed Workers Centres) movement by Alec McFaden. I missed the talk. At lunchtime there was so much food left over.I put all the sandwiches in bags and ask Tom Mellish “the organiser” to give me a hand to bring them to St Mungo's. He helped me to carry the food to St- Mungo.

14.25: Richard Exell (TUC)

Richard is the TUC’s Senior Policy Officer responsible for work and on Employment and social security, writing and commissioning TUC guides and reports. I missed the talk part of the talk but I do remember hearing that the sanctions were there to foot the bill for Tax Credit instead of asking the employers to offer decent wages. They take the money from the claimants to pass it onto the underpaid.

14.45 Ideas sessions. Mapping a welfare system.

Discussion in mapping a Charter (more or less):

1. Unconditional income that hasn’t been defined completely

2. Banned sanctions for good
3. £10 hourly work rate ('Living Wage')
4. Jobcentres should advise the claimants. (This advisory role should not be surrendered to an external agency.)
5. Workfare that is mandatory should be banned
6. Free Education and proper training
7. Only doctors, specialists and the claimants should be involve in assessing ESA and other health benefits not ATOS or MAXIMUS.
8. Financial Help for families’ carers.

16.15. Report back and brain storming from ideas above.

A final Charter will be revised and published in later date.

17.00

Liane Grove spoke about what Unite is doing. Her own experiences and the hard work that the group is contributing to in changing the policies of this government through workshops like this one.

17.15 The End.

Unite Community activists bulletin, 10 October 2014

By Robin Sivapalan, Unite Community London & Eastern Region Co-ordinator

We can be proud that Unite Community activists are playing such an important role in reshaping politics in London.

Last week, as part of the Boycott Workfare Week of Action, members protested outside 5 Job Centres in North London calling for an end to Sanctions. Members of the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group protested outside the TUC and met with officials inside over the issue of Youth Traineeships which they fear entails TUC support for mandatory unpaid work for young people, which the TUC dispute. Unite Young members are also addressing the issue.

For a little light relief take a look at members of our Barnet Housing Action Group outside the Hendon Job Centre which they re-named the Sanctions Centre:

http://bambuser.com/v/4982755

No to MPIPM

Next week the world’s largest Property Fair, MPIPM, will be coming to London Olympia. Unite has produced a press briefing on this that will be covered in the Guardian. We need as many people as possible to take part in the BLOCK BORIS action at the opening of the event

• Opening protest – #BlockBoris: Wednesday 15 October from 9am, meet outside (Kensington Olympia) overground.

On the same day, PCS members will be on strike over pay, so please visit Job Centre picket lines if possible. It might be worth checking there’ll be a picket with the regional organiser Charlie beforehand if you’re going out of your way: charliemacdonaldpcs@gmail.com / 07803 717 709

Over Thursday 16^th and Friday 16^th a counter-conference is being held in central London, “Cities for People, Not for Profit:

• http://radicalhousingnetwork.org/mipim-uk/counter-conference/

TUC demo “Britain Needs a Pay Rise”: Join the Housing Bloc or the Unite Bloc on October 18^th. 11am Blackfriars, Embankment/

Unite Community members from around the country will be joining the TUC March; there will be new Unite Community membership forms that explain the kinds of things we are campaigning on. It is a good opportunity to build awareness of what we do as well as to join a mass show of opposition to the politics of Austerity. The unemployed, pensioners and students Need a Pay Rise too!

 

Modern Slavery Bill

Unite and Unite Community members, part of the Justice for Domestic Workers Campaign are appealing for our members’ help in writing to their MPs to secure support for an amendment that has been tabled to the Modern Slavery Bill that is being debated next Tuesday 14^th October. The template letter is attached; you can write to you MP here:  writetothem.com/

“Enabling migrant domestic workers to change employer and apply to renew their visa annually if in full time employment would be a significant step towards preventing abuses against migrant domestic workers, including forced labour, by their employers and enabling them to seek redress without fearing deportation from the UK. Human Rights Watch, Kalayaan and Unite Community strongly support this amendment and hope you will give it your vote.”

 

Please me send through your news and photos towards producing a newsletter, and please get in touch if you want to get more involved locally of in one of our working groups on Housing, Job Centres or Mental Health.

 

 

Hope to see you all soon

Robin Sivapalan

London and Eastern Community Co-ordinator

Robin.Sivapalan AT unitetheunion.org 

07860 955 361

When marriage is slavery — and UK laws perpetuate inhumanity

By Swheatie of the KUWG

After posting a Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group blog piece this afternoon about the need for people to write their MPs about the Modern Slavery Bill, I recalled a Community Care magazine article from 2006 about 'No Recourse to Public Funds' — known to social workers as 'NRPF'. (Community Care is a trade magazine for social care, and now exclusively online.) While the major UK political parties are saying that they will take the views of UKIP voters on board — and they conveniently ignore the question of why so few voted in the recent parliamentary by-elections — it is high time that someone helps make the public aware of how UK laws are already much too inhumane and why this blogger says, "Stuff UKIP's xenophobic and bigoted 'mission'. It is high time for UK voters and trade unions to get together to promote social justice rather than isolated self-interest. Unite Community is making a good start there, and so I'm glad to be part of it.

"But for far too long and under Labour Governments, trade unions have neglected to support the unwaged including disabled workers, and much of the exploitation that exists in 'work for your benefits' regimes in the UK started under Labour. And now the TUC has colluded with the Confederation of British Industry to promote a 'traineeships scheme' that, it has been argued, is really a form of workfare and could lead to the unpaid 'trainees' being sanctioned — especially given the names of the companies backing it."

Swheatie not backing UKIP in Clacton-on-Sea or anywhere else

Enough of that for a preface, time now to unveil the Community Care magazine I read back in 2006, now shared via the Community Care archives.

No recourse to public funds: the plight of refugees fleeing domestic violence.

November 22, 2006 in Children

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Hundreds of women arrive in the UK each year only to be trapped in violent relationships. They have two choices: stay put and remain at the mercy of their assailants, or escape and risk destitution. Mark Gould reports

Simran Kaur, a small gentle woman with a tiny, almost imperceptible, handshake, puts her hands to her face and sobs slow, silent tears. She is almost mute with trauma – unable to find words to describe the nine months of abuse and virtual solitary confinement she faced at the hands of an indifferent husband and his domineering mother from the day she arrived in Bristol from Delhi in December 2003.

Fragments of her story emerge in short sentences translated by her caseworker, Meena Patel. “I was kept in the dark in my room with the curtains closed. When I tried to open them my mother-in-law slapped me. I was vegetarian and she told me to eat meat. I lived on bread and water. When my mother or sister rang I was told I could not speak to them.”

She was even under pressure when she was left alone. On one occasion she was locked in the house and managed to set off security alarms by leaving her bedroom. Every year about 600 women who arrive in the UK as immigrants and asylum seekers are trapped in violent relationships.

Most are married to or have relationships with UK citizens or men who have indefinite leave to remain in the UK. A minority have come here as fiancées or dependants of students and workers or are here temporarily in their own right. Many of them have children who are British citizens. Their official status is NRPF – no recourse to public funds – which excludes them from benefits and housing entitlement. It also prevents them fleeing to a refuge as the rent is usually funded by housing benefit.

While abusive families are at fault for women such as Simran ending up in these situations, campaigners say their actions are compounded and encouraged by “inhuman and discriminatory” failings in the benefits  and immigration system which leaves them with no recourse to public funds. Due to a nightmarish catch-22, women – and some men – are left with the choice of leaving an abusive home and becoming destitute or staying and risking their lives.

Without the help of campaign group Southall Black Sisters, Simran, 26, would have had nowhere to turn; her insecure immigration status labels her NRPF, but she is unable to return to her family in India who see women as in some way culpable for an abusive relationship.

Pragna Patel, of the Southall Black Sisters management committee, says Simran’s story is a familiar one: “Women are  imprisoned as domestic or sexual slaves – by strangers or by their husbands and families who have absolute power over them.

They have the ultimate weapon – they say, ‘disobey and we can send you back’.”

In 2002, after an intense campaign led by Southall Black Sisters, the Home Office introduced the Domestic Violence Immigration Rule. This allows women who enter the UK as spouses or long-term partners of a British national or someone settled in this country – and who are subject to a two-year probationary period – to apply for residency if they can prove that domestic violence caused the relationship to break down. However, they still have no recourse to public funds.

Pragna Patel says the rule is an important step. But she says confused and frightened women like Simran cannot make use of it while trapped in an abusive relationship.

“The rule is too restrictive in terms of the evidence needed and in relation to the category of people who can use it. But the main reason why people do not use it is because they have no recourse to public funds. This means they don’t have the benefit money to pay for accommodation, food or other essentials and that means they are less likely to escape an abusive situation and less  likely to make a complaint about the abuse to the police. And that means perpetrators get away with it.”

Southall Black Sisters says the only solution is to abolish NRPF and has launched a campaign to that effect which has support from a range of women’s groups....

Continue reading this article on the Community Care website.....

See also:

Residence test on legal aid could cost councils millions | Community ... Sep 19, 2013 ... The No Recourse to Public Funds Network (NRPF) is part of the joint Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (DASS) and Association ... Sunday, 10 August 2014 More on TUC backing for workfare 'Ivy' of the KUWG has added a post script to the blog piece TUC backing for workfare. Perhaps that post script is worthy of a blog piece in its own right rather than an appendage position? "This cosy TUC and CBI backrub comes right after Ed Milliband’s announcement to cut benefits for 18 - 21 year olds, as revealed in The Guardian," she writes.....

Traineeship Scheme and the TUC — Statement from the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

As the Trades Union Congress annual Congress opens in Liverpool today, Swheatie of the KUWG publishes here the Statement about workfare for 16-23 year olds that we issued to Megan Dobney, Secretary of the Southern & Eastern Region TUC (SERTUC) on 25 August and the reply from Megan Dobney.

Traineeship + TUC — KUWG's statement

It has come to our attention at Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group (KUWG), that the TUC has allied with the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) to jointly back the Traineeship-scheme.

Given that we have firsthand knowledge of how unemployed people are treated by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), let us outline the many problems with the TUC statement of Support for the Traineeship-scheme / Work-Experience-Placements:

• Although the statement says that these "should be voluntary", this "should" is too meaningless and is likely to be abused by the DWP and employers, and simply ignored.
• And even if it would say that these "must be voluntary", the question remains who is going to enforce/check this? --Because often the DWP gives the impression that sanctions will be applied if voluntary things are not taken up, and with people being bullied onto the scheme with little knowledge of their right to refuse, or face increased pressure (sometimes through the threat of other workfare schemes) if they do refuse, it is likely these traineeships will amount to yet another workfare scheme.

On a general level, we are opposed to the Traineeship-scheme for the following reasons:

• it furthers the normalisation of unpaid work,
• it undercuts the Minimum Wage,
• it further undermines employment rights,
• it allows for benefit-sanctions to be applied by the DWP

(despite any polite requests that it should be voluntary),

• it is likely to replace regular, paid jobs (--simply because it is cheaper for employers),
• the quality of the training is mostly poor and does not provide any real qualifications.

We are in favour of preserving the rights to benefits for all claimants including the young, and ultimately of abolishing the means-testing for benefits.

We are in favour of allowing people who are claiming benefits to volunteer without any interference on the part of the DWP. Voluntary work should be completely voluntary (from start to finish) (and without hidden sanctions).

We are in favour of allowing everyone (whether they are claiming benefits or not) to do unpaid work only in sectors which are not driven by profit. In reverse this means: it is important that all for-profit organisations are prevented from access to any forms of unpaid labour.

What’s needed are jobs, at proper wages and fair conditions. That’s what the TUC should be fighting for. That’s what unions owe to their members. A fair taxation of the wealthy would quickly secure enough funds for the public sector to employ staff at decent wages and working conditions.

We eagerly await your response and strongly request that the TUC end their support for this Traineeship-scheme and publicly announce their withdrawal. Please reply to us within a reasonable time so that we don’t feel as if this issue is being swept under the carpet.

In future, we would be happy to assist the TUC with our expertise before decisions are being made about the unemployed. As a group we have acquired such inside knowledge of the problems with the current benefit system, that even Jobcentre Advisors are now referring cases to us.

Sincerely yours,

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group

Reply from Megan Dobney, SERTUC Secretary, dated 26 August 2014

Thanks ___ for KUWG’s contribution

We’ll look at this when I’ve got the views of PCS (I know some are on holidays still so it’s likely to be next week at the earliest)

In the meantime, KUWG might want to consider that the TUC position is not from TUC officers but that of the TUC’s General Council and was approved by all unions, including Unite to which many of your members are affiliated – you could open a discussion there perhaps?

Cheers, Megan

---

See also:

• Find real causes of youth unemployment, find the solutions 

• TUC backing for workfare causes outrage

• More on TUC backing for workfare

•  Johnny Void: How The TUC Always Planned To Abandon Out of Work Benefit Claimants

TUC backing for workfare causes outrage

It really does seem to be 'the silly season' newswise, a time when humanitarian political activists are likely to be on holiday and political skulduggery comes more to the fore than at other times. How else can we explain the Trade Union Congress teaming up with the Confederation of British Industry to promote 'work for your benefits' for 16-23 year olds? [NB: Sorry for the typo in labels for this blog piece: For "18-23 year olds," read "16-23 year olds."]

This was disclosed on the Johnny Void blog on Saturday 2 August in a piece entitled TUC Side with Bosses to Back Tory Workfare Scheme and followed up with even more gory detail on Friday 8 August in a further piece entitled The TUC and Workfare: Sadly, It's Worse than You Think.

'Ivy'* of the KUWG has responded with justifiable outrage.

Here are some picks of eligible providers trusted by TUC to “train” 16 - 23 year olds:

Capita Plc is eager to train youths. After all, this multimillion profit making business just can’t afford to hire any. 

Camden council is also eager but not in this academic year. Unlike Milton Keynes where the council is raring to go.

Care Training East Midlands Ltd - will they get teenagers to lift, carry & bathe patients before those teens can “qualify” as minimum wage, zero hour contracted hospital staff?

Carillion Construction Ltd must thinks it’s brilliant not having to fork out on any construction site injuries like they would on real employees.

McDonald’s Restaurants Ltd in Barnet - well, those burgers won’t flip themselves... Much training needed at this impoverished multinational conglomerate.

Virgin Media Ltd in Hampshire - yeah, cause Branson (or his tycoon buddies) are way too skinned to hire 16 - 18 year olds. Damn those minimum wages - they burn a pocket in every stakeholder!

BT in City of London, Vodafone Ltd in West Berkshire & Phones 4U Ltd in Birmingham are all keen, just not in this academic year. But they are all eligible, thanks to TUC.  

For full list: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/traineeships-eligible-providers

So bravo TUC, way to defend youngsters against corporate abuse! That should really encourage them to join the unions. 

How convenient that this is a time when trade union officials tend to go on holiday! Will an automated 'out of office' email response be sufficient to assuage the justifiable outrage that such betrayals are likely to arouse?

But Swheatie of the KUWG recalls that the involvement of dodgy companies in supposed 'training programmes' is not particularly new; but what is new an particularly worrying — even without the TUC backing — is just how far 'conditionality' and threat of sanctions for 'work for your benefits' participants has replaced barganing power. Swheatie writes:

I do remember that it's now about 9 years since I got enough info between a letter from the Disability Employment Adviser at the jobcentre and attending an interview at A4e Holloway re their 'Health & Social Care NVQ' training course.

The info that I got by inference was that they were so accustomed to getting 'trainees' fed to them by the jobcentre that they did not bother to give any kind of motivating information that would help orient learners for successful outcomes and prevent them from seeking other training providers. (I had the comparative luxury of being classed as a 'casual' employee with an Islington based social care provider who paid £7.81 per hour per 3 hr shift of contact time, while successive 'zero growth budget' increases in funding from LB Islington meant there was minimal in-service training budget. Of course, I was also submitting part-time earnings forms at the jobcentre when signing on, and JSA regularly cocked up the top-up to my JSA.)

And one day while I was submitting part-time earnings forms at the jobcentre and not getting the top up money due to me, a conversation one day between one 'Client Adviser' and another in my presence gave me a slight window into what was going on for young people on 'work experience' administered via the jobcentre at the time. The 'Client Adviser' in front of whom I was signing-on told her colleague, "I get really annoyed with these 'training schemes' that take people on with Internet companies such as NTL and then spit them back onto the dole queue as soon as the 'training period' is over'."

A caring jobcentre worker was annoyed at such a state of affairs. What did Virgin 'entrepreneur' Richard Branson do about the matter? He probably rubbed his hands with glee at the ethos of a scheme having a similar ethos to his as an employer renowned for discarding businesses as new ones emerged under the Virgin brand. For in February 2007, Virgin subsumed NTL, presumably along with freebie youth trainees as yet more cash cows to help make Sir Richard Branson what he is today.

* Name disguised for reasons of confidentiality