I am curious what people's reaction to this is, so I am simply going to describe the situation as neutrally as I can without comment. Several months ago, the UK government announced plans for a new workfare program. Under this program, selected JSA recipients (JSA = job seeker's allowance, basically unemployment benefits) will be required to participate in a work experience. This entails working 30 - 40 hours a week at a position at a participating company for 8 weeks to 6 months. Participants are not paid by the company, however, they continue to receive JSA, and continue to be required to demonstrate that they are actively looking for a job on a biweekly basis. This program is slated to be expanded to include the elderly, disabled, and those with more then 6 months to live. JSA is about £53 per week for under those under the age of 25 and about £67 per week for those over 25. This works out to an effective wage of no more then $3.50 / hour. This program attracted little public attention in the UK until yesterday, when a news story sparked outrage. Tesco, one of the UK's largest supermarkets, posted a notice on a major job seeker's websites for a permanent night shift position to be paid JSA plus expenses under this workfare program. Tesco has faced a storm of criticism that it is exploiting the unemployed by getting free labor, paid for by the government. Tesco today issued a statement that the notice was posted in error, caused by an IT mistake. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...s-Jobseekers-Allowance.html?ito=feeds-newsxml http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2012/02/post-2.html So, what do you all think?
