Mais uma reflexão sobre o que vem ocorrendo no mundo do trabalho. Segundo reportagem do diário londrino "The Guardian", jovens estão sendo chamados para um "período de experiência" em que prestam trabalho gratuito, "correndo o risco" de serem um dia contratados como empregados, inclusive com direito ao salário.
Segue a reportagem, publicada em 23.fev.2012
'Back to work' firm in new row as it forces
jobseekers to work for FREE in its own offices By JASON GROVES and SAM
GREENHILL
Last updated at 1:26 PM on 23rd February 2012
The firm behind a controversial 'back-to-work'
scheme forced desperate jobseekers to take unpaid employment at their own
offices or face having their benefits stripped, it has emerged.
It also sent people to work for free at
supermarket giants Sainsbury's and Asda and a host of other businesses.
A4e, a contractor to the Government’s flagship
Work Programme, run by millionaire Emma Harrison, has come under increasing
pressure after news that police have launched a second fraud inquiry in to the
firm.
Investigation: Emma Harrison's beleaguered firm
A4e is to face a second inquiry involving state contracts it was revealed last
night
Now, in a response to a freedom of information
request made by The Guardian, it has been revealed that A4e dispatched jobseekers to carry out
unpaid work in its own offices.
Before the revelations Prime Minister David
Cameron defended the idea of work experience for young people in the Commons.
Speaking yesterday he said: 'It is not a
compulsory scheme; it is a scheme that young people are asked to go on and the
findings are that around half of them are actually getting work at the end of
these schemes.
Questions: Fiona Mactaggart challenged David
Cameron at PMQs yesterday by asking what action was being taken but the PM is
expected to defend the scheme
'That is a far better outcome than the Future
Jobs Fund.
'I think we should encourage companies and
encourage young people to expand work experience because it gives people a
chance of seeing work and all that it involves and gives them a better chance
to get a job'.
Protests and widespread campaigns against
Tesco's involvement in the programme resulted in the business doing a dramatic
U-turn on their involvement in the scheme, while Sainsbury's have also backed
out.
Today
Cameron is expected to say that attacks on these companies have gone too far
and will urge businesses to defend themselves from 'dangerous rhetoric'.
According to his office, he will say: 'Put a
young person into college for a month’s learning, unpaid, and it’s hailed as a
good thing.
'Put a young person into a supermarket for a
month’s learning, unpaid, and it’s slammed as slave labour.
'Frankly I am sick of this anti-business
snobbery.'
U-turn: A freedom of information response has
revealed that Sainsbury's took on jobseekers for unpaid work, but the company
has since pulled out of the controversial 'back-to-work' scheme
The freedom of information request was directed
at just one of the three A4e offices, in Holloway, north London, but reveals
that from 12 months up until June 2011 the firm was sending jobseekers to its
other two locations as well as other small businesses and charities to work
unpaid or face losing out on their benefits.
It comes after news that police have already
launched a second fraud inquiry involving state contracts run by his
millionaire ‘back-to-work’ tsar Emma Harrison.
Mrs Harrison’s beleaguered firm A4e volunteered
details of the second investigation last night as it tried to counter claims
that it was involved in ‘systemic’ abuse of taxpayer-funded contracts.
The move came after the Department for Work and
Pensions revealed it had launched no fewer than nine fraud investigations into
the firm in recent years.
Ministers were last night distancing themselves
from 48-year-old Mrs Harrison, who was appointed by the Prime Minister in 2010
to help get 120,000 ‘problem families’ into work.
A senior Government source indicated she was
likely to lose the role if evidence emerged that fraud was widespread and
ongoing at the company, which earned £180million from state contracts last
year. Her firm could also be stripped of its current lucrative Government deals.
Earlier this month the Daily Mail revealed that
Mrs Harrison had paid herself a dividend of £8.6million last year, despite her
firm’s failure to meet Government targets on finding jobs for the unemployed.
A4e last night insisted that there was ‘no place
for fraud’ at the company.
It said the second police inquiry involved a
subcontractor on one of the back-to-work contracts it manages, and did not
involve any A4e staff.
But the revelation came hours after it emerged
that Thames Valley had arrested four former A4e staff on suspicion of
defrauding the taxpayer.
The DWP said it had launched nine
investigations into alleged fraud at A4e since 2005.
In five cases the firm was ordered to repay
thousands of pounds to the taxpayer after evidence of ‘irregularities’ was
uncovered. In one case last year a former employee in Hull pleaded guilty to
eight counts of forgery.
In a statement last night the DWP said: ‘We do
not intend to comment about the current investigations.
Astonished: Margaret Hodge said she could not
believe that the DWP did not routinely call in police to investigate fraud
allegations
‘While these cases do not relate to current
contracts including the Work Programme, we have reminded A4Ee of their
contractual obligations and if there is evidence of systemic fraud in either
current or past contracts, we will not hesitate to terminate our commercial
relationship with them.’
Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Commons public
accounts committee, said: ‘This suggests there may be systemic problems within
the organisation. The Government should suspend all contractual obligations
until investigations are complete.’
She said it was ‘astonishing’ that the DWP did
not routinely call in the police to investigate allegations of fraud. But the
DWP said it was for A4e to take ‘appropriate disciplinary action’ in cases
where there was not enough evidence to justify a criminal investigation.
In the Commons yesterday former Home Office
minister Fiona Mactaggart challenged the Prime Minister over A4e. She asked: ‘What
action are you taking to make sure neither vulnerable unemployed people nor the
taxpayer are victims of fraud by A4e?’
Mr Cameron said the allegations against the
firm appeared to relate to back-to-work contracts it held under the last Labour
government.
He said a police investigation was ongoing but
added: ‘The investigation needs to be thorough, it needs to get to the truth
and then we can take into account its findings.’
A source at the DWP said it was ‘literally
impossible’ for A4e or any other company to defraud the Work Programme in the
way that has been alleged in the past because the main payments are not made
until people have been in jobs for several days.
In a statement A4e said it operated in an
‘intensely regulated and audited industry’, and had its own internal audit team
monitoring the work of staff and subcontractors.
The company said: ‘All these cases relate to
historical contracts and that the current Work Programme eliminates any
opportunity for malpractice because it is computer-based and payment is on
results.’
Chief executive Andrew Dutton said the firm was
‘proud’ of its record, adding: ‘There is no place for fraud at A4e.’
Director of scandal-hit firm used to work for
Cameron
TV appearance: Jonty Oliff-Cooper in the
Channel 4 reality series The Edwardian Country House
A former Tory official who worked in David
Cameron’s inner circle and was an aide tohis policy adviser Steve Hilton is now
a director of scandal-hit A4e, it emerged last night.
In an example of ‘revolving door politics’,
Jonty Olliff-Cooper joined A4e armed with top-drawer Conservative Party
contacts.
Critics said it was evidence of the cosy
relationship between the Government and A4e, which holds Whitehall contracts
worth tens of millions of pounds.
At Mr Cameron’s Policy Unit, Mr Olliff-Cooper
was Tory guru Steve Hilton’s close aide for a year from 2008 to 2009.
The party came to power in 2010 and months
later Mr Oliff-Cooper moved into the private sector with A4e.
Mr Olliff-Cooper, 29, went to school at
Winchester College, then studied modern history at Oxford University before
taking an MPhil in cultural and political history at Cambridge University.
After joining the Boston Consulting Group as an
associate he worked with the Department for International Development for a
year. He then taught for two years at the Prime Minister’s old school, Eton.
He joined the Conservative Party as a policy
adviser in 2008 and a year later was a head of programme of the Progressive
Conservative Project at Demos – an independent think-tank.
In September 2010 he joined the A4e group as a
director of policy and strategy. Months later, A4e founder Emma Harrison was
appointed Mr Cameron’s ‘families tsar’ with a brief to get problem households
‘back to work’.
Ten years ago, Mr Olliff-Cooper was filmed
lording it over servants as he starred in a TV reality show.
His family appeared in Channel 4’s The
Edwardian Country House at Manderston House in Berwickshire in 2002. Critics
claimed at the time that Mr Olliff-Cooper played his part with ‘relish’.
When New Labour was in power, A4e forged close
links to its ministers. One of A4e’s consultants is David Blunkett, the former
work and pensions secretary who advocated private involvement in welfare
reform.
Mr Blunkett declares on the register of MPs’
interests that he is paid up to £30,000 a year by A4e. There is no suggestion
of impropriety by Mr Blunkett, but he may be embarrassed by the probe.
Paul Blomfield, Labour MP for Sheffield
Central, said he plans to request details about Mr Olliff-Cooper’s access to
Government.
Last night A4e said Mr Olliff-Cooper was abroad
and unavailable for comment.
0 Comentários