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New Deal slammed for forcing the unemployed into slave labour

“Exploitation must end – real, decent jobs are needed”

The Youth Fight for Jobs Campaign today slammed the New Deal and Steps to Work schemes as being “vehicles to force the unemployed into slave labour, to be exploited by employers heavily subsidised by the state.”

The claims follow the publication of a review by the Northern Ireland Audit Office which reveals that 24% of all employers surveyed “indicated that the availability of a source of low cost labour was a significant incentive to their involvement in the programme”.

Paddy Meehan, an organiser for Youth Fight for Jobs stated “Employers did not have to pay the minimum wage to workers who were forced onto these programmes or faced having their benefits withdrawn. The state paid £100 a week to each participant to bring workers up to the minimum wage. It is scandalous that employers are being encouraged to pay below the minimum wage. This amounts to the sponsoring of enforced labour.”

Four out five end up with no job

“The statistics show that four out of five people who were placed on to New Deal positions ended up without a job. Incredibly, the report says that some people have been put through this system of exploitation five times. These schemes have failed. 93% of people ended up without sustained employment.

“The Youth Fight for Jobs Campaign is calling for the scrapping of the Steps to Work programme which has subsumed the New Deal. We are demanding massive investment by the Assembly Executive to create a programme of public sector works to create decent real jobs, not slave labour.”

END

For further information and comments contact Paddy Meehan on 07876146473

Youth Fight for Jobs is sponsored by:
Fire Brigades Union (Northern Ireland)
John Maguire, Visteon Belfast Convenor Unite
Carmel Gates, Billy Lynn, Brian Booth, Lucia Collins, Padraig Mulholland, NIPSA General Council
Jim Barbour, FBU NEC
David Bell, CWU Branch Secretary Clerical Branch
Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary
Chris Kitchen, NUM General Secretary
Andrew Price, UCU Wales EC
Bernard Roome, CWU NEC
Chris Baugh, PCS Assistant General Secretary
Gary Jones, CWU NEC
Glenn Kelly, Unison NEC
Janice Godrich, PCS President
Jane Aitchison, PCS President DWP section
Jean Thorpe, Unison NEC
John McInally, PCS NEC
Judy Griffiths, CWU Coventry BT Branch Secretary
Onay Kasab, Unison Greenwich Branch Secretary
Katrine Williams, PCS Chair Wales,
Kevin Greenway PCS NEC
Marion Lloyd, PCS NEC
Mark Baker, PCS NEC
Martin Powell Davies, NUT Lewisham Branch Secretary
Rob Williams, Swansea Linamar Convenor Unite
Robbie Segal, Usdaw NEC
Roger Bannister, Unison NEC
Stan Herschel, RMT North East Regional Organiser
Bob Potts, RMT NEC
Kevin McHugh, PCS NEC
(All in a personal capacity)