Alex Andreou

Asking the questions others are too intelligent to ask

It's companies like G4S that really embody the "something for nothing" culture

After Workfare, the Olympics fiasco is another rocket fired into the side of the HMS Private Sector Efficiency.

By Alex Andreou Published 16 July 2012 14:05

Security checks at the Olympic site. Photo: Getty Images

Occasionally, reality has an aggressive way of bringing government rhetoric down to earth, like a malicious Tour de France spectator with a handful of tacks, watching Cameron approach on his Barclays bike.

For most of last week, talk has been of Olympic Security and the failings of G4S. The Government are making tough noises about penalties for failure to perform on the contract. G4S, in reply, not-so-subtly hints at the sudden rise last December in the number of security personnel required by LOCOG, from 2,000 to 10,000. The notion being, presumably, that thorough bag searches are a close substitute for non-incendiary social and foreign policies.

Another interesting debate, however, is to be had on the potential link between G4S’s failure and the scandal surrounding the deployment of "workfare" staff around the Queen’s Jubilee. The news of unpaid jobless being sent by coach from Bristol and made to spend the night under London Bridge was met with outcry. It is almost impossible to dismiss the collapse of such schemes under the weight of public opinion and the sudden G4S realisation that they will not be able to have the numbers promised, as mere coincidence.

Many folks misunderstand these schemes. They appear to believe that the employer will pay a participant’s Job Seekers' Allowance for a number of weeks while they work for them. This is incorrect. As can be easily gleaned from the literature on this, it is the state which continues to pay:

“Participants will remain on benefit throughout the period of the sector-based work academy and Jobcentre Plus will pay any travel and childcare costs whilst they are on the work experience placement.“

We know that G4S is one of the participants in the DWP’s Work Programme from Freedom of Information request 3238/2011. We know that Close Protection UK – the company at the centre of the Jubilee fiasco – are themselves sub-contracted to G4S for Olympic fire safety stewards. We know that workfare placements for the Jubilee were offered as training with the possibility of lucrative Olympics jobs on completion. We know that G4S defended Close Protection UK as an approved contractor who required no further vetting. We know that back in February G4S were advertising Olympic Recruitment with the words “not a job vacancy but you might find it interesting”.

How many thousands of jobless were G4S planning to deploy, either directly or through sub-contractors, before workfare schemes became PR-toxic? Here is a company getting paid an average of £28,000 for each of the 10,000 employees required. With unemployment standing at 2.6m, it is incredible to suggest that staff could not be found and trained for such a well paid seventeen-day engagement.

Much more likely is that the company miscalculated in its attempts to maximise its profit, over-estimated its ability to do things “on the cheap” and the availability of free labour, and spectacularly failed. Another rocket fired into the side of the HMS Private Sector Efficiency from atop a London council block.

The Olympic Security scandal reveals the issues behind workfare schemes with crystal clarity. There was plenty of money available. There are no permanent jobs beckoning at the end of the Olympiad. The demand side is fixed – 10,000 is the requirement; no extra jobs will be created by deploying training schemes.

It is a mystery that while traditional right-wing commentators like the TaxPayers Alliance and the Mail object to funding an individual’s benefits, they appear quite happy to cross-subsidise huge conglomerates. Such programmes do not end the “something for nothing” culture. They elevate it to the corporate level. They allow companies like G4S to get something for nothing on a grand scale. We might be paying for these security staff twice – by paying for their training through direct contract fees to G4S and again through these schemes.

Another, seemingly unrelated, story also captured the headlines last week: the first convictions under Section 71 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 for “holding a person in servitude” and “forced or compulsory labour”. (We were also told – every hour on the hour – that the guilty parties were a family of Travellers. In combination with the recent child grooming trial and a Mail story about a “refugee rapist”, this proves that the provenance of a criminal is especially newsworthy if it is a minority.)

I studied the sentencing remarks of Judge Michael Kay QC with interest. "The promise of pay was a monstrous and callous deceit”, he said. “The conditions were squalid and at times they were starving. The way in which these defendants, for their own financial benefit, brutally manipulated and exploited men who are already plumbing the depths of despair is pure evil.”

And I think to myself, what is the difference, really, between the victims of that case and a group of jobless people being herded on to a coach from Bristol, under threat of losing their benefits, dumped underneath London Bridge to spend the night, with no food or toilet facilities, made to strip in public to change into their uniform, until having to stand there in the lashing rain the next day to steward a celebration of privilege?

Can you spot it? I can’t.

More from Alex Andreou

View the discussion thread.

49 comments

Sat, 2012-09-29 08:01 — Magpie's View (not verified)

Workfare

Work for your benefits
Seems a fair idea
Free labour for businesses
Seems a little queer

Why should taxpayers
Enhance the profit made
By those who exploit poverty
By those who pay no wage

Work for your income
But receive an honest wage
Is that so hard to understand
In this modern age

It’s based on the idea of decency
To your fellow man
And not stealing the lives of others
Just because you can

Let businesses pay nothing
For the work they get
And employment will be history
Whilst servitude will become set

David Chalk

Sat, 2012-09-29 07:58 — Magpie's View (not verified)

Two points about these schemes

According to Chapter 9.3.3 of the UK Border Agency Enforcement Instructions & Guidance

The European Court of Human Rights has interpreted “forced labour” as comprising two elements - involuntariness and an unjustifiable or oppressive character. Subsequent case-law adopts as a starting point the International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition:

“All work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the person has not offered himself voluntarily.”

This means that the original workfare was unlawful racial discrimination as well as an unlawful violation of the victims rights under article 4 ECHR.

Secondly these schemes are now continuing under the guise of "voluntary" work training placements.

So the crux of the matter is what are the two differences between Corporate Welfare and Individual Welfare. The answers? 1 Corporate Welfare costs the country a lot more. 2 The recipients of Corporate Welfare give politicians a cut.

Sun, 2012-08-05 01:02 — Footballer (not verified)

You are absolutely right, where is this world going?!

Tue, 2012-07-24 22:23 — BartonAlan (not verified)

I have it on good authority (army personnel tasked with training G4S recruits) that G4S have recruited staff who cannot speak adequate English to be trained in what they need to do. Some speak virtually no English and training simply isn't possible. It is "going to be pure luck if no security incidents occur".

Tue, 2012-07-24 22:21 — BartonAlan (not verified)

Mon, 2012-07-23 23:55 — ClemtheGem (not verified)

For goodness' sake, why is so much spam now allowed in the comment streams here? Seriously, who moderates this? Over ten percent of this one stream is now adverts for trash.
Good article, good linkage.

Thu, 2012-07-19 01:06 — Simpleton (not verified)

This G4S guy should have forgotten about "not employing the unemployed" job schemes! He should have got some blow up dollies and dress them up in uniforms. No one would have known - There are loads of them in the parliament no one noticed them yet!

Thu, 2012-07-19 00:59 — Simpleton (not verified)

Wed, 2012-07-18 19:07 — niuqqd

http://lnk.co/I1B2D
http://lnk.co/I1B2D

Wed, 2012-07-18 18:29 — hugh markey (not verified)

It's a trick as old as security or sin. Park putative jobseekers on the back-burner until just-in-time vacancy is financially active.
Security firms always try to draw up a list of security bods and then offer them micro-time work at events, exhibitions, sports and pop stadia.
Of course you can still draw your benefit and pocket the 'cash-in-hand' bung.
In this case the security burkes thought they didn't need to fine-tune the operation - an entrepreneurial government and all that - and came a cropper.
Keeping jobseekers in cold storage at government expense - a nice little earner. Del Boy wouldn't have been so dumb.
This a kick in the privates that gives 'free enterprise' a bad name
Calender Girl

Wed, 2012-07-18 17:01 — Phil Daniels (not verified)

I also enjoyed the article very much - almost as much as watching the grilling given in committee, not yet reported as: 'Buckles under pressure.'

Wed, 2012-07-18 15:58 — Work Ready Eddy (not verified)

Agree with the article but not sure why you needed an FOI request to discover that G4S were one of the 18 prime providers of the Work Programme, it was never a secret. One of the ways G4S tried to sell itself as part of the Work Programme tendering process was the fact that it was the biggest private employer in the world. However it seems recruitment for each of their thousands of contracts is managed contract by contract at a local level, thus with no central HR overview there has never been an easy way to fast track individual's from the Work Programme into specific G4S roles. The Olympics' contract however ,as you suggest, would have been an ideal opportunity to do this and profit from the forced labour inflicted on the UK's 'feckless underclass'.

Wed, 2012-07-18 15:55 — Work Ready Eddy (not verified)

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Wed, 2012-07-18 13:20 — Gideon Polya

A report from Australia about G4S in Perth Now (29 April 2011) entitled "Security contractor G4S guilty of 'failing to prevent' Aboriginal elder's death " (see: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/security-contractor-g4...). quote : "Security contractor G4S has pleaded guilty to failing to prevent the heat-stroke death of an Aboriginal elder in the back of a prison van in Western Australia's goldfields region.

The private company entered its plea in the Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court and sentencing is scheduled for June 3.

The elder - Mr Ward, 46, who cannot be fully named for cultural reasons - died of heat stroke in the back of the un-airconditioned van while being transferred from Laverton to Kalgoorlie in January 2008 to face a drink-driving charge.

G4S was charged under the Occupational Health and Safety Act with failing to provide reasonable care to ensure the health and wellbeing of a person in its care."

Laverton is 252 kilometres (157 miles) from Kalgoorlie and Aboriginal elder Mr Ward died in transit locked in an un-airconditioned G4S van at the height of summer in the Australian desert.

Yet according to the NS article G4S was granted a circa 280 million pound contract to help look after the "health and well-being " of people at the London Olympic games.

Wed, 2012-07-18 12:29 — McMac

Wow. What a pile of steaming conjecture and made up ‘facts’…

G4S was always going to struggle with the increased number of security staff required. The issue they’ve got is that the work is short term, but the staff have to be trained, certified and have an enhanced CRB check in advance. We just don’t have that many SIA qualified workers sitting around.

If this was done months in advance, to try and ensure the staff are available, the newly SIA security staff would drift off into other jobs, or G4S would have to pay them retainers massively increasing the cost. Trying to put people through the process at short notice obviously has its own issues that we’re seeing today.

The problems have nothing to do with the Jubilee staffing media storm, in fact, LOCOG and G4S have been becoming increasingly concerned about the provision of security people since well before the Jubilee celebrations, with relaxed contractual obligations on third party security companies over the last 6 months or so to try and get more people supplying staff.

Wed, 2012-07-18 09:45 — Ardeyeff (not verified)

It is some comfort to realise I am not alone in thinking we live in a rotten, corrupt society in which it is the letter of the law and its unprincipled exploitation by the priveleged few which decides who wins in life. I maintain it is the intellectual dishonesty that allows Labour and the Tories to act as if an electoral system which provided us, in 2010, with the first government to hold the mandate to govern since 1935, enables politicians to claim to claim we are a democracy. Root out corruption at the highest level in the country - the Commons - and we might find politicians who will risk their party's interests in those of the Nation.

Wed, 2012-07-18 01:22 — TCStephens (not verified)

I have nothing to add, other than that this is an incredibly good article!

Wed, 2012-07-18 00:47 — john rogers (not verified)

Like others have said this is a very perceptive and powerful article, Alex joins the dots and asks the questions that sadly Labour just won't ask or confront:, its not just about the odious Buckles and G4s but the whole neo-liberal model of outsourcing, workfare and the race to the bottom, both here and globally. One could ask are the scales finally going to fall from their eyes or are they so bound up(similarly to the apparatchiks in the old Eastern Bloc) that can't or won't see that the model has failed, is causing massive damage to peoples lives and that ultimately social unrest similar to the above will occur...

will keep an eye out for more of your articles...

Tue, 2012-07-17 22:28 — Matthew Care (not verified)

Very nice read.

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Tue, 2012-07-17 18:13 — Mark Walberg (not verified)

Its stories like this that really keep people in the know. Thank you New Statesman once again for reporting the truth. With so many media outlets nowadays refusing to report on relevant stories or present the full facts its good to know there's once source that is still reliable. Thank you from sanantoniobonds.com

Tue, 2012-07-17 15:22 — Ged Travers (not verified)

The article joins the dots by linking the G4S failure with Close Protection's appalling treatment of Mandatory Work Activity claimants during the Jubilee farce. Alex is right to point out that the taxpayer effectively pays twice for outsourced public services which see public money blatently transfered into the greedy grasping hands of the private sector. He is also right in identifying the central problem here as the blinkered pursuit of profit regardless of the social consequences which, in the final analysis, is a false economy for which the taxpayer, again, picks up the tab. To me the big underlying story surrounding the G4S recruitment fiasco is not, as the mainstream media would have us believe, the effect on Olympic security during the games. The main question here is: if the biggest private security corporation in the UK can't recruit enough people for a temporary event then what hope has the private sector of making a dent in mass unemployment in the event of a miraculous economic upturn? After all the Con-Dem's trot out the same mantra " the private sector will create jobs" at every opportunity. It seems incredible that they should not be challenged with the G4S example which proves beyond any doubt that the private sector is very good at sacking workers but useless at employing them. Rant over, I needed to get some phlegm off my chest.

Tue, 2012-07-17 11:49 — Juliet (not verified)

It's about time that the "private beach" enjoyed by Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight is now open to the public. I hope that means Osborn House is too. Is it me, but in this day and age, it seems outragously decadent for one family to have enjoyed all that private ground and splendour. I KNOW it was royalty and she had a big family, but if that were true of any family today, they'd be getting berated for having so many children, when Africans are starving and the Chinese can only have one child each. I don't see why the royals should have all the land and treasures they own. It should be handed over to the nation for all of us to enjoy. Distribution of wealth and all that.

The so-called security for the Olympics is a joke. Someone who said he signed up for the job was a journalistic investigator. He went through the Job Centre, along with all the African and Asians looking for work, and went through such rudimentary "training" on how to be a security guard, which only lasted a day, it wouldn't qualify any of them for security work after the Olympics. When questioned about the "loose" way they were supposed to search a bag, he was brusquely told "not to ask" and to move on down the line. It seems to me that the Games will be rife for breach of security and I will stay away from London as far as I can go, even though I think they're putting on a spectacular flying saucer show, I feel sorry for those that need to be there. Something's afoot, and it doesn't smell good. The Queen will be at the opening of the Games, so it won't be then. Let's see if she goes off on holiday before the end. Anyone know if any royalty will be attending the last day of the games? Because they're the only ones that all this protection is for, I feel. Everyone else can "blow in the wind" as far as some powers that be are concerned. Can't you feel it, too, a big build-up to something ominous? I hope I'm wrong - I'd rather be wrong, but I can't help shivering, seeing dead bodies in my mind's eye, 7/7 all over again, only worse - much, much worse. If it's not during the games, it's something soon, before the end of the year. Earth could become "Planet Mayhem" with REAL aliens and polar shift.

Tue, 2012-07-17 09:33 — Bill23 (not verified)

Unless the self-replicating parasitic bureaucrats are stopped we will go the same way as Greece. The answer to the problem is too simple for most to have figured it out. Stop paying council tax. This is the base of the dung heap; the template that all public service spongers build upon.
Think it through; stop paying council tax if you care about England.

Tue, 2012-07-17 13:31 — jobsnob (not verified)

£1600 a year to have my dustbin emptied....once a fortnight

Tue, 2012-07-17 06:24 — john hurt (not verified)

A good article. Free labour is the holy grail for the bosses. These con men are paid to supply workers that are given to them free by the state, yet there is not a word of criticism in the mainstream media. Frightning!

Tue, 2012-07-17 00:06 — Silican (not verified)

The rot started when everyone was convinced by the crock that we needed all this 'security'.

Thu, 2012-09-13 06:21 — steve 3 (not verified)

That 'crock' was american paranoid brought about because 500 plus athletes -coaches and judges would be visiting London - a city with a large Muslim population.
That' crock' american paranoid about foreigners also meant the US Olympic contingent would be guarded by 'unarmed' FBI agents, because the US had no confidence in G4S, the British military of the London's police force.
I believe that 'crock' american paranoid was instrumental in making the MOD place missile defense systems on the roof tops of residential buildings around London.

Thu, 2012-09-13 06:21 — steve 3 (not verified)

Mon, 2012-07-16 23:43 — Sleeping Monkey (not verified)

While the treatment of Job Seekers at the Jubilee was very wrong, I wonder if it would have caused such an outcry if it had been only Security Guards who were involved. One hopes that this interest in G4S will encourage The Left to take a look at the working conditions of Security Guards in general. Or are they considered not much better than Lumpenproletariat?

Mon, 2012-07-16 22:18 — keefer (not verified)

To mkmky

Neil is right, if you are receiving JSA then you are entitled to HB and council tax benefit. Apply for them. Both council and jobcentre will lie or misinform you so you have to struggle to get it but go ahead you have paid NI and taxes for 30 years and are entitled to it.

These companies are part of the redistribution of wealth from the majority to the rich that is taking place during the recession. It is the short term answer along with cutting wages in order to boost profits and wealth for the rich. The idea of investing in something worthwhile, and increasing productivity through technology, appears to have been forgotten about.

Sadly it is an economic paradigm shared by the main parties.

Mon, 2012-07-16 19:04 — niuqqd

http://is.gd/PFQQs4

Mon, 2012-07-16 18:50 — James-Wilts43 (not verified)

Totally agree but New Labour outsourced more public sector jobs and services than even Thatcher managed. I watched as a public service worker during the Blair/Brown years as service after service was passed over to private contractors and terms and conditions and quality were driven down.

Mon, 2012-07-16 22:14 — robertsgt (not verified)

If you think the Britain are hot now, wait top they make the connection between G4S and Israel

Mon, 2012-07-16 22:10 — Norman Normal (not verified)

"Totally agree but New Labour outsourced more public sector jobs and services than even Thatcher managed."

So, they are all the same. No surprise there.

Mon, 2012-07-16 20:17 — andyg (not verified)

I agree James. I can also see the similarities of this article and those private companies that won many of those public contracts. I also agee with your comments regarding 'new liebor' and the private work of here he comes again Mandelson, a bigger privatiser than Thatcher could ever dream.

Mon, 2012-07-16 20:16 — andyg (not verified)

Mon, 2012-07-16 18:28 — andyg (not verified)

Best article that I've read on the NS. More like this please.

Mon, 2012-07-16 18:09 — mkmky (not verified)

Good comparison on Mandatory Work Activity/Servitude.I lost my job and held out from applying for JSA as long as possible,eventually after 8 months of sofa surfing I applied,It was a humbling experience after working 31 years straight. I currently receive £71 a week(which I am grateful for),I am able to apply for HB, but after talking to the council as a single male the chances are nil. I was promised training as most certificates that I had achieved are no longer valid,for 11 months I was scheduled and rescheduled, but funding was allocated to the WP, assigned to the WP informed I will be working 30-42 Hrs per week in order to keep the £71 (sorting at a recycling plant) While still required to apply for 12 positions every 2 weeks,during this period 2 sick days are allowed,no holidays and as I live within 5 miles transportation costs will not be met. Do not want to sound like a whinger,but there is not a chance of being taken on as they have an abundant supply of free labour,so what is the point?

Mon, 2012-07-16 22:25 — Junis (not verified)

UK unemployment benefits are the envy of the Western world........not.

http://issuu.com/janus777/docs/uk_unemployment_benefits_compared

Mon, 2012-07-16 19:37 — Neil66666666 (not verified)

If you're getting jobseekers, and have rent to pay you will get housing benefit and council tax benefit. The council are probably lying to make you go away. There are plenty of sites which tell you your rights as a jobseeker. I suggest you read them, as the DWP will (probably not intentionally) lie about what you're entitled to. As for not signing on immediately, that's crazy. If you're paid up for NI you get six months contributions based UB, at which point you must claim JSA which is means tested. The last time I was made redundant and went to claim my contributions-based benefits, the form had the contributions-based option scribbled out so I had to ask for a form which wasn't defaced!

I'm sorry to say that being unemployed is a war of attrition, with the DWP holding all the ordnance. Your best option is to be informed.

Mon, 2012-07-16 18:56 — jobsnob (not verified)

The point is you have been designated as a member the underclass who's role is to supply plentiful free labour in order that the likes of Cameron can retain 4 houses and his £30m fortune. Your destiny has been agreed by all the elitist major political parties.

Mon, 2012-07-16 18:27 — Alex, Sturdyblog (not verified)

Breaks my heart. Bon Courage friend.

Mon, 2012-07-16 17:51 — A realist (not verified)

This is an excellent article. The private sector is meant to be good for the economy as it is efficient and funded privately. However, so far public sector workers are being sacked to make way for incompetent private firms that use public funds.

This is the new conservatism. Private companies paid for out of the public purse. They are the new wealth takers, not creators.

We are continuing to privatise profits without risks for the private firms. Yet the funds for failure such as with the banks and g4s are being paid for from the public purse. This is costing us money. It is a phoney capitalism.

Also, much as i admire Lord Sugar's amstrad days, i feel his youview business should not be being promoted by the non profit bbc.

What with the olympics fiasco- seems that public money is being used to fund too many private enterprises. There is nothing entrepeneurial about any of this.

Mon, 2012-07-16 15:40 — Ron Graves (not verified)

I recall that, months ago, LOCOG predicted this shortfall when they asked G4S to provide 10,000 more warm bodies than the 2,000 they'd initially contracted for. Which, in the time available, was very unlikely to happen and, to no-one's surprise, it hasn't.

So why is so much effort being expended to make this look like a last minute cock-up on the part of G4S? The cock-up, surely, isn't just by G4S, but also by those whose job it was to get the numbers right in the first place, and clearly failed - LOCOG. Why aren't they getting their share of this shitstorm?

The real failure of G4S is in not telling LOCOG to sod off when they asked for 10k more people.

Mon, 2012-07-16 15:11 — jobsnob (not verified)

Thank you for this, if only the BBC and the main stream media were allowed to report the truth no doubt they would snap the author up in a trice.