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LAST SATURDAY, a group of activists gathered at Daunt Square in Cork to picket a major city centre business which we believe has been attempting to engage in the use of free labour through JobBridge. Organised by the Scambridge Cork campaign, an initiative by young members of the Socialist Party, we placed this shop on our “Wall of Shame” where it – along with other Cork businesses – will stay so long as they continue to exploit the unemployed through the free labour scheme devised by Labour and Fine Gael.
The purpose of the picket was to highlight the displacement of real, paid jobs by businesses nationwide by labelling them as ‘internships’. For nine months, companies who apply to join JobBridge as a host organisation profit from the labour of an intern without having to contribute a single cent for the work they provide.
The latest business featured on our Wall of Shame has advertised for six positions so far – and is just one example among many in a culture where unpaid Labour is now a state backed programme under JobBridge. A quick look at the JobBridge website will show that the majority of positions offered are not internships but real jobs, with positions being offered for car valets, butchers and receptionists for example. JobBridge is also being used widely to circumvent the recruitment ban in the public sector, with Cork City Council taking on 64 staff through JobBridge since July 2011.
Our protest got huge public support, with people of all ages signing our petition and sharing their experiences of the JobBridge scam. The national scambridge.ie website, initiated by Paul Murphy MEP, has been deluged by accounts from those who have suffered exploitation on so-called JobBridge internships.
JobBridge is not real job creation scheme. In reality, it allows the government to massage the unemployment figures while giving the appearance to take action. The Government have trumpeted figures from the Indecon study on JobBridge claiming to show a majority of JobBridge interns have subsequently gotten paid employment. The reality is that the study showed that only 19.5% got employment with the host organisation, but crucially that 29% of employers using JobBridge said they were highly or fairly likely to have hired paid staff even in the absence of the scheme. JobBridge actually prevents jobs from being created; why pay someone when a company can get free labour subsidised by the state?
There has been a great effort in recent years by the government to portray the 450,000 people currently on the live register as being idle as a result of laziness, or inertia or a lack experience or training. This was the message from Labour and Minister Joan Burton in particular, when in the latest budget they introduced huge cuts to the social welfare of 66,000 unemployed people under the age of 25. Labour TD Eamonn Maloney referred to young people being “at home watching flat-screen television seven days a week”.
The reality is much simpler; there are simply not enough jobs. There are 32 unemployed people for every job vacancy (NERI, Quarterly Economic Facts: Autumn 2013). The Government’s desperate efforts to paint unemployed as being responsible for their own situation, is a cover for their own lack of any real strategy to deal with unemployment.
JobBridge is not about creating jobs or helping the unemployed, it is about padding the unemployment figures bailing out business, and normalising unpaid labour.
Young people, and all unemployed, should not accept the choice the government is trying to offer us between emigration or life on the dole and in unpaid work. We need an end to JobBridge with a real jobs programme, based on state investment in education and real training and to create the jobs which the private sector is incapable of providing.
We at Scambridge will continue to expose companies that are attempting to profit off the desperation of the unemployed through this disgraceful scheme. We will picket a Cork city centre business again this Saturday at 1pm and draw attention to their unethical use of free labour. Scambridge and other groups are also planning to organise a series of protests nationally to highlight this scandal.
More information visit the Scambridge.ie or the Scambridge Cork Facebook page.
Kevin Coughlan is a 22-year-old special needs assistant and youth activist who’s a member of the socialist party.
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We heard during the pandemic from the government how they and the state owes the front-line services for the tremendous work was being carried out by them…now let us see the government giving these workers is fireman, nurses, guards, and the army… as we see we cannot get anyone to go onto these services
@Paul Maguire: it takes a while to qualify, esp for EMT. It’s not a course you can do overnight. I’m a volunteer for the last 11 years with a org and I’m waiting to do my EMT. To staff a ambulance you need to a minimum EMT and be PHECC registered. It’s not a job a 17 year old kid can just hand in his CV to. It’s a very difficult course as been a made up patient for osces
@Alan Scott: To become a retained firefighter its a 3 week recruitment course, 2 week breathing apparatus course and 1 week fire behaviour course. After there is constant training including water rescue, emergency first responder and so on. The problem is recruitment and retention. People are leaving the service and cannot be replaced. Guaranteed income is between €8k and €10k. The government conducted a survey of the retained service and deemed it not fit for purpose. The government then did nothing to fix it. The firefighters of Ireland have constantly asked for it to be fixed until we ultimately had to go on strike to highlight the seriousness of the crisis. Whether we strike or not, the service still has to be fixed…..we are just trying to force them into doing it. People always said to me ” how can you do that job” , now that they realise the commitment involved, they ask ” why do you do that job”.
WE DO NOT WANT TO STRIKE AND CLOSE STATIONS BUT WE WILL NOT BACK DOWN
@Sean Henehan: If 50% of the stations have been closed for 9 weeks or whatever and no one has noticed would it mit just be easier and better to make the busier stations full time and close the rest? Probably not want anyone wants to hear but sounds like that’s what everyone is looking for and neither side is willing to say. Smaller stations will get screwed out of this mark my words
@Ryan Simmons: Good point Ryan but summer is generally a quieter time for incidents in the home etc, if this is still going on into the winter it will have a big effect. For example a chimney fire can become very serious if not dealt with in a timely manner. Turn out times are hugely reduced because of stations being closed
@Sean Henehan: and you have my support wholeheartedly and the entire nation
@Ryan Simmons: FFG bot!….. How about fix the terms and conditions instead of running them into the ground needlessly. Management needs to go for running a critical service into the ground. Govt needs to take a long hard look at themselves (not hard for Leo) for standing by and letting it happen…… It is an essential service, lives at stake, and it has been mismanaged. Shocking stuff, shocking but not surprising
@another one? what’s going on is the semi state sec: Easy to throw nonsense politics around if you can’t see the wood for the trees. Doesn’t matter who is in power, money talks. All parties pay lip service to whatever you want to hear. All comes down to what makes sense financially. critical service? How are children’s mental health services in your area? How are disability services in your area? Why are smaller hospitals staffed with inexperienced locums? Want me to go on? If you want to go the politics road, this is just another political football, none of them really care. Doesn’t matter who’s in power and if you think it does there’s no help for you. All that matters is what makes sense on the bottom line. Firefighters deserve more, no argument, but like anything there’s a tipping point. @Sean Henehan talks about turnout times, if the busier stations are full time that solves that problem. If you genuinely believe that any other party has anything different to offer than look at European politics for the last 100 years. It’s all the same, campaign in poetry and govern in prose.
I dont understand how they expect part time firefighters to get a second job when they are constantly on call. Who in their right mind would hire them. Maybe they should be guaranteed the option of a local council/government job when they join the fire service so they have a steady income they can rely on as well as being able to drop and go when on call?
How about a poll on public support for these brave people? I’d say it would be overwhelming in favour
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