Job bridge converting paid work into unpaid work,and the massaging of dole figures...

national | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Sunday June 09, 2013 14:44

by notajobbridgesucker

Here is an interesting arcticle i have found on the scambridge.ie website,i find it interesting how joan burton has massaged figures,and is furiously trying to spin something positive out of job bridge.

What could be so positive about robbing what could be a paid job from the poorest of communities,usually the paid work they convert or nullify into unpaid work are of working class and middle class level jobs.

IT ROBS WHAT COULD BE A PAID JOB FROM THE COMMUNITY.

What is so positive about that?The 38% of interns taken on are not 38% per se,but 25% of that 38%,so there is another shady lie from the minister for ''jobs'' or should i say unemployment?

Here is the article below:

'Minister Burton is furiously spinning these figures to give the impression that JobBridge has been a success when in fact the scheme is a failure and is open to much abuse. The underlying figures in this report, together with the figures given previously by Minister Burton in response to Dail questions illustrate the failure of the scheme.

The report suggests that 52% of interns had gained employment from the scheme. This is spin. In her Dail reply to a question she said that the figure for those who had found employment on completion of the scheme was 37%. This tallies with a figure in the report which suggests that 36.2% of those who completed the scheme were in fulltime employment a month after finishing the scheme. Of course, the more time passes, the more people who previously engaged in a JobBridge scheme, will again enter employment. That doesn’t tell us though whether it has anything to do with their internship or not.

The fact that cannot be hidden is that 59% of people do not complete their internship. Again, the report spins this, euphemistically referring to them as internships that ‘were ended before their scheduled timeframe.’

With mass unemployment haunting Ireland, the Government is under pressure to be seen to be doing something about it. Thanks to its continuation of the disastrous austerity policies of the last government, the unemployment rate is now over 14% (a significant underestimation when those who have dropped out of the labour market are taken into account), with youth unemployment closer to 20%. Without the prospect of a job, around 1,000 people are emigrating from Ireland every week.

As part of their election promise to tackle the scourge of unemployment, the Government hyped up a so-called ‘Jobs Programme’. This was downgraded to a ‘Jobs Initiative’ essentially made up of tax cuts for business.

The rules for JobBridge needs to be immediately and vigorously enforced, with a proper vetting process, as opposed to the monitoring of 5% of placements which currently happens. In addition, JobBridge should now be begun to be wound down and replaced by a RealJobs scheme – with real job and apprenticeship opportunities for unemployed people.”

I have been on a job bridge scheme,and i am skeptical of the hiring rate,as there were 3 people including myself taken on a job brige scheme for work,that could have been advertised as paid work for 3 staff members,and none of them were hired after the scheme finished.

This to most employers is a profit making excercise,no more than that. The government would do better trying to attract real work,real investment,and demand companies take on paid staff as opposed to unpaid staff.

This is at huge cost to the government and drives up the welfare bill,its time to cull the quangos.

They rob jobs from the community,and the governement would do better to have real jobs with tax being paid back to government.

The current FF/FG/LAB voters are doing a great disservice to this country!

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Comments (8 of 8)

Job Bridge is welfare for business

by T

Tue Jun 11, 2013 00:12

The Job Bridge scheme is very obviously a form of welfare for private business but it is not the only form of welfare since the bailout itself is just one big welfare scheme that the entire country is paying for the extremely wealthy and the country is being bled dry to pay for it. And the same time social welfare for people is being cut in thousands of ways.

However, I think Joe Mc put it very well and cut through all the bullshit and pretense and hit the nail on the head. It was also very interesting about Dr Istvan Szekely the EU pro-consul whom I had not been aware of.

@ ce worker

by joe mc

Mon Jun 10, 2013 17:05

Yes to all that, but the reality is that the government is deliberately using these schemes to suppress the wages of workers . Isn’t that the whole point of them , why they were set up in the first place? The policy of introducing what amounts to slave labour is not some sort of a mistaken policy of the government as the article suggests with its call for the creation of a “RealJobs scheme – with real job and apprenticeship opportunities for unemployed people.” It’s like telling the pre-bellum Southern slave owners that there was a better , more humane way of doing things than with the lash .

I do agree with genuine jobs and apprenticeships, but the way the article is written, it’s as if the government hadn’t thought about that as well . As if the notion had never crossed ministers’ minds to ask Dr Szely for permission to implement just such a Realjob scheme , as if they hadn’t been told in no uncertain terms to sit down, shut up and get on with doing what they had been told to do.

former fas ce worker

by ce worker

Mon Jun 10, 2013 15:58

Well i think the first step in saving money on welfare with regards to austerity(which isnt really working),is to cull the money eating quangos that rob jobs from the community..

Turkey

by Joe Mc

Mon Jun 10, 2013 15:46

While Irish workers are being persuaded that reforms are possible under the present capitalist system and its legislative set-up , they will never start acting the way workers are in Turkey .
If the government did collect a lot more in taxes it would all go to paying off the bankers anyway. The government of a bankrupt state may be consulted , but has no say in how it conducts its affairs. Ireland is to be treated like a mortgage holder who has fallen into arrears and has thrown himself at the feet of his bank manager .

Mon Jun 10, 2013 14:41

They are talking about cutting welfare...AGAIN.. Families cannot afford all the new charges as it is,ie water rates ,and the no purpose property tax(i still have potholes down the end of my road that need doing).

They need to think about cutting money eating quanogs that are driving up the welfare bill for a start,and spare the families who are struggling to provide for their dependants.

The reason i ask is what is it giving back to the government,is because there is no taxable paid jobs being made from these schemes,they are vunerable to abuse,and employers have a habit of using the free worker revolving door system.

It robs what could be a paid job from the community,usually the most vunerable of communities.

Recently i saw a few ads for car valet(which used to be paid positions advertised),and saw doctor,which is a specialised job an intern should certianly not be doing!

go tell Szekely

Mon Jun 10, 2013 14:13

Athlone asks regarding Jobsbridge : “where is the pay back to government?” It’s like people have been on these schemes so long that they don’t realize what is going on in the world outside of them. There's an element of disconnect - as if a discussion is taking place sometime in the late nineties about an inept government that could somehow be held responsible for a recent rise in unemployment figures , and nudged into doing the right thing . If only they could tinker with the taxation rates , add a few bits and pieces on here and there to the tourist industry perhaps ,think of how well we could do ?- a bit of give and take from employers and employees alike “we” would all be over the worst of things , take up our rightful place amongst the nations of the world again etc, etc .

If this country only legalized pot somebody says on another thread :

“It is estimated that tax revenue from the Irish cannabis industry could well exceed 1 billion euro per annum. Thousands of much needed jobs would be created in a range of sectors of the economy.”

It’s all a pipe dream . The government -if you can call it that- is responsible for fine-tuning and implementing policies that have already been worked out elsewhere. The government is acting as a bailiff on behalf of the people who really control a collapsed economy - people who are working out the best time to come in with the crow bars and battering rams. Most serious financial commentators think that the Irish economy is not going to get back on its feet again for another sixty years or so, or that Ireland is simply bust and is never going to become economically independent ever again .

Under such circumstances , the real question to be asking should be: “where is the payback to government from social welfare and dole payments , health service , pensions , education etc?” And that is the type of question being asked by the likes of Istvan Szekely .

I’m not sure whether or not Dr Szekely is still the pro-consul here , but , if not, it will be somebody of a similar stamp.

"There's a Hungarian university lecturer called Istvan Szekely and he's essentially the EU proconsul in Dublin. Anything the Government wants to do, they go along and they talk to him. And he's a strange guy. If he doesn't like what they're saying, he stands up and he shouts at them, and he wags his finger. It's like primary school, very odd. "

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/meet-the-per....html

Mon Jun 10, 2013 12:15

I was on a scheme similiar to this job bridge,it was a fas scheme,and i can say without a shadow of a doubt never again.

There seemed to be a culture of abuse on the scheme,right from top to bottom,we were treated with contempt,and suspicion by some,who eventually lost their jobs,while more fas ce staff were taken on.

There was nobody there watching to say this was illegal(firing paid staff and taking on unpaid staff)eventually i complained to higher management in fas,who sent me out a generic letter saying it was not within their remit to pursue this,i was complaining a manager of the company signed up to the scheme,and the adjoining supervisor of fas,who were both bullying and intimidating staff members of the ce scheme.

In the end nothing got done higher management found a way to absolve themselves of their responsiblites,i then went to higher management in the company that was signed up to fas,again nothing got done.

Until pressure is put on government to cut these schemes i believe nothing will be done about these schemes.

And while they are allowed to continue ,abuse in the work place will be allowed to continue.

another useless money eating quango..

by athlone

Mon Jun 10, 2013 11:31

I have read the scambridge.ie page too,it has a lot of stories on it from people on the scheme who were bullied at work,and all for 50 over the dole,sure that would go on travel and lunch expenses in the week.

I think the government are mad to be doing this paying out for employers to get free workers,where is the pay back to government?

Clearly its just another quango that hasn't been thought through with more foresight.

It's an expense on top of the welfare bill,its a quango that needs to be shut down if the government have any sense they will do this.

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Job bridge converting paid work into unpaid work,and the massaging of dole figures...

Comments (8 of 8)