Thank you for covering the trial shift scam story! A friend's 18-year-old son did *two full day shifts* at an e-bike factory (just outside London), only to be told a couple of weeks later that there was no work for him. I suspect you've uncovered a nationwide scam here! Bravo, Jim
In California state labor laws and liability insurance rules prevent people doing free work. Interns must be paid minimum wage-no more free work for any amount of hours to get school credit thanks to a major film studio that exploited interns and long-term “temporary” workers. After the Department of Labor exposed the studio’s practices such as enticing low-pay temporary hires by telling them they were in the queue to move into permanent jobs that never happened the laws were tightened up. I counsel newcomers and people seeking to get into the PR field that if they are asked to “volunteer” to staff an activity or work regular hours for an organization that isn’t affiliated with a non-profit org/NGO to run in the other direction. Working without pay to do a job others are getting paid is against the law. And watching workers in the UK get exploited is really depressing, in any industry or job role. Go on job/employer review sites like Glassdoor or Reddit and post about “unpaid shifts”. Before considering accepting an unpaid shift see how prevalent it is at that company and has a time posted that a free shift secured them a paid position. If not, hard pass. Save the funds on wardrobe, transportation etc to out toward better quality opps.
It used to be common in journalism in Ireland. It wouldn't always be blatantly called "unpaid shifts"; you'd just be expected to get stories, do your own legwork at your own expense, and pitch to an editor who might publish it and might eventually pay you - or might pass your story on to another journalist who would take it over and claim it as their own. The union did nothing to stop this because the editors and their cronies were members (and had loads of time to attend meetings while the poor freelancers were out looking for stories).
Have you seen the postcards they sell in those tax evading gift shops? The other day I had to buy a postcard of London to send to my niece in America for a school project. I checked all of the Leicester Square gift shops and they all had the same awful selection from the same printing company, complete with spelling mistakes, badly edited images and - in some cases - visible watermarks from the stock photo website they had clearly been stolen from. Guess the postcard market is pretty much dead at this point?
This is similar to a fully official, State-supported scheme here in Ireland where two private companies have a contract with the Department of Social "Protection" to "activate" unemployed people to take low-paid work. These people are taken off the Live Register. There's a lot of resistance to it from people who at present are reluctant to sign off the Dole because it's a stressful process applying again and their Dole is reduced if they've managed to scrape together rainy-day savings. The best cure for this is Universal Basic Income; employers would be able to avail of ad hoc shift workers who would be happy to top up their UBI without the risk of having their safety net withdrawn / depleted. It would also save a fortune in bureaucracy and associated costs to the public health system (signing on the Dole, having to undergo a means test, living with uncertainty, makes already-poor, vulnerable people sick). The only losers would be the two private companies "activating" the Jobseekers.
Oh yeah, I’ve also been victim to many a “trial shift”. Got the job in two circumstances but was never paid for those shifts. Wait, isn’t there another word for unpaid labour?
I’d recommend studying economics to understand the labour market implications, as these problems were very predictable. Raising NI contributions and the minimum wage means that firms won’t hire people that they otherwise would. Hence you have a massive oversupply of people competing for fewer jobs. When people can’t compete on price (lower wage) it means you have to compete on being willing to put up with jumping through more hoops to get a rarer job
Those Criterion letters are hysterically predictable. Billionaires pretending to be the little guy picked on by elites and even playing the race card is Populism 101. It’s a thing in modern times when the wealthy have co-opted the language used in the past by the downtrodden and huge amounts of people actually believe them.
Important topic being raised here on entry level jobs for young people in London - a worrying trend and one I see very little being done on - but then again, what can be done by any government really? Important albeit depressing trend.
Yeah, we come back to the same issue: lack of enforcement. It's like most of the issues in the UK come from "landlords are too powerful" and "lack of enforcement".
I'm not racist. I'm prejudiced against billionaires.
Thank you for covering the trial shift scam story! A friend's 18-year-old son did *two full day shifts* at an e-bike factory (just outside London), only to be told a couple of weeks later that there was no work for him. I suspect you've uncovered a nationwide scam here! Bravo, Jim
In California state labor laws and liability insurance rules prevent people doing free work. Interns must be paid minimum wage-no more free work for any amount of hours to get school credit thanks to a major film studio that exploited interns and long-term “temporary” workers. After the Department of Labor exposed the studio’s practices such as enticing low-pay temporary hires by telling them they were in the queue to move into permanent jobs that never happened the laws were tightened up. I counsel newcomers and people seeking to get into the PR field that if they are asked to “volunteer” to staff an activity or work regular hours for an organization that isn’t affiliated with a non-profit org/NGO to run in the other direction. Working without pay to do a job others are getting paid is against the law. And watching workers in the UK get exploited is really depressing, in any industry or job role. Go on job/employer review sites like Glassdoor or Reddit and post about “unpaid shifts”. Before considering accepting an unpaid shift see how prevalent it is at that company and has a time posted that a free shift secured them a paid position. If not, hard pass. Save the funds on wardrobe, transportation etc to out toward better quality opps.
It used to be common in journalism in Ireland. It wouldn't always be blatantly called "unpaid shifts"; you'd just be expected to get stories, do your own legwork at your own expense, and pitch to an editor who might publish it and might eventually pay you - or might pass your story on to another journalist who would take it over and claim it as their own. The union did nothing to stop this because the editors and their cronies were members (and had loads of time to attend meetings while the poor freelancers were out looking for stories).
Omg the Azis bots hahaha they really have the nerve to post inauthentic comments instead of actually paying taxes and being a good landlord
Have you seen the postcards they sell in those tax evading gift shops? The other day I had to buy a postcard of London to send to my niece in America for a school project. I checked all of the Leicester Square gift shops and they all had the same awful selection from the same printing company, complete with spelling mistakes, badly edited images and - in some cases - visible watermarks from the stock photo website they had clearly been stolen from. Guess the postcard market is pretty much dead at this point?
This is similar to a fully official, State-supported scheme here in Ireland where two private companies have a contract with the Department of Social "Protection" to "activate" unemployed people to take low-paid work. These people are taken off the Live Register. There's a lot of resistance to it from people who at present are reluctant to sign off the Dole because it's a stressful process applying again and their Dole is reduced if they've managed to scrape together rainy-day savings. The best cure for this is Universal Basic Income; employers would be able to avail of ad hoc shift workers who would be happy to top up their UBI without the risk of having their safety net withdrawn / depleted. It would also save a fortune in bureaucracy and associated costs to the public health system (signing on the Dole, having to undergo a means test, living with uncertainty, makes already-poor, vulnerable people sick). The only losers would be the two private companies "activating" the Jobseekers.
All trial shifts longer than an hour or two should be paid and that’s a hill I’d die on any day
Stop being racist to Peppa Pig!!
I shall now consider myself one of "the powers that be" in London, might update my LinkedIn profile accordingly :D
Oh yeah, I’ve also been victim to many a “trial shift”. Got the job in two circumstances but was never paid for those shifts. Wait, isn’t there another word for unpaid labour?
Seat only goes up to 9! How big is Tom?
Mine goes up to 11.
(not really, sorry, old Spinal Tap joke)
I’d recommend studying economics to understand the labour market implications, as these problems were very predictable. Raising NI contributions and the minimum wage means that firms won’t hire people that they otherwise would. Hence you have a massive oversupply of people competing for fewer jobs. When people can’t compete on price (lower wage) it means you have to compete on being willing to put up with jumping through more hoops to get a rarer job
Sounds like Das Kapital would be the best thing to study!
Those Criterion letters are hysterically predictable. Billionaires pretending to be the little guy picked on by elites and even playing the race card is Populism 101. It’s a thing in modern times when the wealthy have co-opted the language used in the past by the downtrodden and huge amounts of people actually believe them.
Are the Friends of Finsbury Park telling the truth? Haringey Council apparently own the freehold to the park https://haringey.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-12/Finsbury_Park_PMP_2023.pdf
Oh my god I can't believe you're picking on Peppa Pig at EASTER time of all times.
Important topic being raised here on entry level jobs for young people in London - a worrying trend and one I see very little being done on - but then again, what can be done by any government really? Important albeit depressing trend.
Huge fines and jail. Oh, and just far laughs, a "trial".
That's how we discourage money grabbing grifters who exploit people. By grabbing more money, making their scams uneconomic
Yeah, we come back to the same issue: lack of enforcement. It's like most of the issues in the UK come from "landlords are too powerful" and "lack of enforcement".