Following up on the development of JobBridge an interesting find sent in by a reader.
Uniphar advertised on Jobs.ie for a Warehouse Supervisor last week.
A few days later an advert for a Warehouse Supervisor appeared on JobBridge.ie – exact same job, no pay and no contribution to the wages from Uniphar.
The farce was brought to the National Employment and Entitlement Service’s attention and the advert for internship has been removed. How did it get there in the first place? Dogs get rehomed more carefully than this. How do we know if all the other posts being offered are not previously advertised by companies or fillers in for those made redundant.
Maybe they can explain why there are internships for Kitchen Porters in Hotels considered suitable for this programme? If the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis cannot afford to hire a Kitchen Porter or has let staff go then how can it be allowed to get labour for free? Other hotels in Ennis who pay wages and PRSI are surely being disadvantaged?
Update: I’ve heard that members of Boards.ie are closely examining internships and job advertisements. Great Stuff!
Open FM » Today’s Links // Jul 8, 2011 at 08:34
[...] JobBridge and free labour Following up on the development of JobBridge an interesting find sent in by a reader. Uniphar advertised on Jobs.ie for a Warehouse Supervisor last week. A few days later an advert for a Warehouse Supervisor appeared on JobBridge.ie – exact same job, no pay and no contribution to the wages from Uniphar. The farce [...] [...]
These really taking the Mick, Topaz are going in for this in a big way.
http://tinyurl.com/684jmz4
http://tinyurl.com/6gdn3xk
No-one’s doing any kind of filtering or quality control on this. Paying jobs are being replaced with internships, so it’s a zero-sum game for the unemployed and essentially a subsidy for these business by taxpayers.
The rules for the interships in the States (though they are studiously ignored by the fashion and media industry) state the following:
1. The internship, even though it includes actual operation of the facilities of the employer, is similar to training which would be given in an educational environment;
2. The internship experience is for the benefit of the intern;
3. The intern does not displace regular employees, but works under close supervision of existing staff;
4. The employer that provides the training derives no immediate advantage from the activities of the intern; and on occasion its operations may actually be impeded;
5. The intern is not necessarily entitled to a job at the conclusion of the internship; and
6. The employer and the intern understand that the intern is not entitled to wages for the time spent in the internship.
(Source: http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf)
While I disagree with point 6 as it discriminates against those who can’t afford to work unpaid, I think the education and training model should be the prime focus here.
(Sidenote: I wrote about unpaid internships recently http://www.irishstu.com/stublog/2011/06/30/calling-bullshit-on-unpaid-interships/ – would love to know the legalities of it, seeing to me as it just seems like exploitation)
Perhaps these internships should only be in the public sector? Even without the €50 payment the government are effectively subsidising the labour needs of private companies, and clearly there is little control over whether those needs are exigent or not – I’m doing a WPP1 placement in a government agency, and a) it’s really good work and piece, but more importantly b) I recognise that due to recruitment embargoes and the general austerity paradigm there’s no way I can expect to be paid for a ‘internship’ which for me at least, if not the unions or management, approximates the entry-level job I’d like but that isn’t available.
It’s not ideal, but at least the government is subsiding itself and I’m okay with doing a period of free labour: on the first issue, I think that becomes a wider political issue of what extent and cost (more jobs, lower salaries for senior employees?) of public services we want as a country; and on the second, I think it’s important to stress that there are those of us who find the opportunity worthwhile and not exploitative, outside of grander problems of the labour market as a whole.
There are going to be good and bad stories in relation to this. But I can say that as a manager in a small irish office this internship will be a godsend. We have been fortunate enough to be getting new business over the last few months. However we havent been getting enough to pay someones wages. This has put a lot of pressure on the current staff who have more than enough work as it is!! If we get an intern it allows the company to keep up the customer service which has increased the business and it will ensure that a graduate / unemployed person gets the chance to feel important again along with €50 a week to pay the bills. From my point of view as a manager this person will be in a great position in 9 months time at the end of the internship, will have a good relevant and up to date reference, 9 months work behind them, the chance to secure full time / part time employment with the company either at the end of the internship or perhaps further into the future. Its win win when the system is ran properly and the places should be doubled in my opinion
So Jim what are you going to offer the intern? Will you pay their travel expenses, childcare? If you find it works out well and your profit margins improve, you may think to yourself ‘why should I bother paying someone to work for me when the government is providing it for free’. The scheme is meant to be a godsend for the unemployed not employers and your post has just proved that its only going to give people like you the chance to exploit people who really want to work and earn a crust.
Well, without getting too detailed, I personally would offer to mentor the individual that was successful in finance. As you may or may not know finance graduates are finding it increasingly difficult to break into the labour market, I would aim to get a finance graduate from no experience to a position where they would be a viable option for management accountant or financial accountant positions. Also the 9 months experience can count towards the 3 years required by most proffesional accountancy bodies.
I think you are missing a point here, im just a manager getting a wage, i dont get a penny extra whether the staff are paid or unpaid. Im simply summing up my position as manager in relation to the scheme, having looked at the website there does seem to be some companies shamelessly breaking the rules. But like everything its the bad companies that get the headlines. The intern that is successful with my company will have about a 40 – 50% chance of gaining fulltime employment with the company should one or two major contracts come our way, We are in a difficult position where we would love to take on some more work, but we have no one to do it, and the company that wants the work done wont pay enough for us to hire someone to do it!!! On who will pay their travel expences etc, I can only speak for myself, I have been on the dole before, and I was utterly frustrated at home and if i could have gotten 50 euro a week extra whilst getting some good experience i would have jumped at the chance. But again thats just my view.
I’m with Lisa above, these businesses are forgetting all about the desperate people out there and behind it all dont give two pence halfpenny about them. They wont even reply to applicants unless it suits them. not even by email. I recently had an interview for a small office admin job – I was more or less going to be left there to run it on my own. Where is the internship there!!?? Teach yourself while the business partner swans off and leaves you to it.. You cant throw someone in at the deep end in an admin job that has stacks of files and clients and swan off and leave a person there by themselves!! You re supposed to have someone train you in – even if just a bit until you find you re feet!!Sorry but sadly I think its back to FAS (or is it Solas now) for me. Very dissapointed by JobBridge so far I have to say. Dont call them either, all they say is “sorry about that” “sorry about that” over and over again.. “a parrot works there” dont take my word for it. Try calling JobBridge. I called them asking them if they could encourage employers to at least acknowlege receipt of the CV by email instead of leaving us desperate hopefuls to wait and wait for a reply. I even wrote to a TD who I am also waiting for a reply from.. I wont hold the olde breath too long. I want a job. These people advertising internships in many cases are looking for the very best there is. what about the rest of us?? as for some of them looking for free Kitchen porters etc I think they should be ashamed. If they cant pay a Kitchen Porter they shouldn’t be in business. Some of these positions are genuine and there are genuine companies out there and I fully understand that but others are taking the complete Mick out of us.
All jobbridge vacancies in the Mayo Area are also on the Fas website as full time jobs, However this jobs are with no pay, Can Someone please close Fas down for good as FAS are out dated and not experienced to be helping people get back to work. Visit the fas office in Castlebar and see for your self
I read the contributors’ comments with interest. It is always important to get others’ points of view. Thanks for posting.
I have to say that I am against the JobBridge programme.
As ever with initiatives in Ireland it is poorly thought out, and even less well monitored.
Its inherent flaws are legion, and I am not going to waste time listing them here: anyone with a reasonable dose of cop on can see the system will soon be full of exploited, desperate people, whose ‘jobs’ in the private sector are being subsidized by the State.
Personally I think a major motivating factor for government here is to lower the numbers, and therefore pacify the IMF and EU money men, and the international investors, by ‘lowering the jobless numbers’, even if it means cajoling the unemployed into any work scheme, irrespective of how effective it will be.
This country is too corrupt for any programme to succeed unless it is very closely and very strictly monitored, with heavy penalties – penalties which are ENFORCED – on those who break the rules.
However one point needs to be raised: exploitation does not end with JobBridge.
About a year ago ‘The Business’ on RTE Radio 1 interviewed a man who runs an internet-based networking business.
He revealed that he had about 20 young graduates with good degrees working with him – he corrected George Lee, the interviewer when he said working FOR him.
The principal ( I am not going to name him here) was the only one getting paid a penny.
He said he couldn’t afford to pay anyone, yet, but assured an astonished Lee that he looked forward to doing so in the future, and added that he had many, many applicants whom he could not accommodate, and so will have a steady stream of qualified, motivated young people sending in CVs.
Lets look at the maths, folks: I am not having a go at this man for trying to set up in business, but when will he employ these people, on a wage?
If they are on a, say, 12 month turnover, will he, in three years, for example, require 36 graduates, on proper pay, while, of course, his inbox continues to fill with new (‘work experience’) applicants?
What about his competitors? I am not willing the man to fail, by any means, and if he does succeed, how can other businesses compete without doing the same as he is doing?
That will be the new status quo.
We are a nation of naive fools for swallowing this nonsense.
The Postman
Ireland is still one of the most expensive places to live and they still think people can work for peanuts what an insult to the people of Ireland
I wish these TDs and business people with their 200k per annum had to work for free or try and survive on the minimum pay set by the FATCATS
This is exploitation with a capital “E” It serves no other purpose other than to massage the “live register” unemployment figures and in general drive down the concept that people should be PAID for working. An internship in the true meaning of the word (as previous poster noted about U.S. system) is an entirely different beast than what has been created here. An internship is entirely for the benefit of the intern and should not be used to plug employment gaps. I work for a state regulatory body who are currently looking for “interns” to backfill the staff shortages that have arisen through the moratorium.
JIM……. so you think 50 euro is going to “pay the bills”…… I am almost on the verge of applying for one of theses jobbridge positions….. I have qualificaions galore, and dont particulaly want anymore in a different field, but i get the fact that when there are no jobs in the industry your in you may have to change industrys! I am a single mum of 1 and I can tell you now, 50 euro a week wont even touch the sides of all the bills and arrears that I have. This scheme is just a way for employers to get cheap labour! and yet…… plenty will go for it, I am almost there!
Jobbridge is a bridge to nothing. It cleverly grooms people into believing that they will gain valuable experience. Irish graduates are now viewed as slaves in the neo-colonized Irish state. Irish politicians are cowardly gobshites with no intelligent means or expertise to create jobs. Does Ireland need to be a beggar or a chooser? If a job applicant goes to an interview he/she is told “well, you have no experience”. If you have a masters your automatically overqualified. Even Springboard is crap. I went on a course for 8 months and they stretched it for 12 months, now its 13 months. This folks was a level 9 or judging by what they wanted in academia I should say level 4 standard. Jobbridge and Springboard are designed to dumb down intelligence, kill ambition, benefit no-one and above all demoralize the vast amount of decent, intelligent and honest Irish people who are/were screwed, abused and humiliated by primitive Irish elites living in a Disneyland society. Maintain your brains: avoid Jobbridge. Even the name is thick when you listen to the word. Only real paying jobs will ‘bridge the gaps’ people face in their lives. If only Ireland had left the caves long ago. 400,000 oppressed people need jobs, not bridges. The 50 euro would only cover travel expenses in any way. Could beg on the street for that instaed of giving 40hrs for legitimate slavery. Ireland the slave economy 2012 – ?.