The silent shame

I am baffled by the inactivity of workers in the Welfare to Work sector.

Weeks ago I predicted redundancies would fall into the thousands and that providers would try and rewrite the script regarding TUPE regulations and redundancy law. With just a week to go for the start of the new Work Programme my words have tragically become reality.

Many providers who were unsuccessful in securing prime or subcontract work for the new scheme have been forced to shed staff and workers who had previously been working on contracts such as Pathways to Work or NDDP have found themselves superfluous to requirements.

If that wasn’t bad enough, some companies have tried to avoid their responsibilities regarding redundancy pay, forcing some workers to seek legal advice from barristers. Understandably I have not named the company in question because I do not want them to have the chance of preparing a ‘defence’ for their immoral and apparently illegal actions. No doubt the imminent legal action will most probably yield some financial gain to those affected, but in the long term that will be cold comfort when the mortgage or rent needs paying, the kids need new clothes and the ordinary working people, who gave so much to this sector find themselves without jobs.

Other employers have blatantly lied to staff by suggesting they were ‘being auditioned’ by potential employers under TUPE regulations. Apparently no-one told the top management of the company that new providers cannot cherry pick their staff under TUPE rules.

So, workers in the sector, like frogs placed in a saucepan of cold water are sitting there, doing nothing whilst management systematically turn up the heat and boil them alive. The government has remained silent and has done nothing to protect jobs as Boards of Directors systematically culled hundreds and hundreds of jobs in the industry. No-one complained! No-one said this is wrong – in fact there were some in the industry who actually argued it was right that the sector should be streamlined.

It is a tragic state of affairs and it is unlikely to get any better. More redundancies will follow, more companies will either close or substantially downsize and more people will find themselves joining the unemployment queues after having given so many years to this industry. But however wrong it may be, it will not change until workers in the sector are willing to face facts and radicalize.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not talking about organizing some kind of revolution – it simply isn’t going to happen. No, this is far more fundamental and requires workers in the sector to recognize they are working for employers who don’t give a toss for their welfare and will dismiss them without a thought when times are hard. The only defence against such oppression is to combine and unite under the common banner of the trade union movement.

This isn’t about trying to take things back to the 1960s and ‘taking on’ the government. This is about bringing workers rights into the 21st century and showing employers that staff in this sector will not be bullied and abused. They will not accept illegal redundancies and they will not tolerate the misuse of TUPE regulations.

This is what the industry needs, but the danger is the water has already started to boil and the frog may be dead.