Tesco has blamed a job advert for an unpaid permanent night shift worker on an “IT error” after outrage in the twittersphere led to claims that the supermarket chain was “exploiting” workers.
The advert, which was posted on the Jobcentre Plus website, said that Tesco was looking for a permanent night shift worker for a store in East Anglia but would pay only expenses and Jobseekers’ Allowance.
Furious Twitter users questioned how it was possible for a major supermarket to get away with hiring someone in return for no full-time wage, however. Jobseekers’ Allowance is currently £53.45 per week for under 25-year olds and £67.50 for over 25s.
But Tesco said that the advert had been wrongly presented and should have been for a work experience placement under the government’s ‘Workfare’ scheme, which was introduced last May. The initiative forces jobseekers to undertake compulsory unpaid work experience for four weeks or risk losing their benefits.
A spokesman for the supermarket chain admitted to the Daily Telegraph that its Twitter account had received hundreds of direct tweets from upset jobseekers, customers and others amid claims that it was “exploiting” workers.
But he said: “The advert is a mistake caused by an IT error by Jobcentre Plus and is being rectified. It is an advert for work experience with a guaranteed job interview at the end of it as part of a government-led work experience scheme.”
The firm took its responsibility as the UK’s biggest private sector employer seriously, which included “giving young people valuable experience of the workplace”, he added.
As a result of such work experience placements over recent months, some 300 young people had so far gone on to permanent employment with the supermarket chain “but not as a replacement or substitute for our permanent staff. In general, Tesco staff receive a higher level of basic pay than any other supermarket, without exception”, the spokesman said.
But a challenge to the legality of the ‘Workfare’ scheme has already been lodged at the High Court by geology graduate Cait Reilly, who claims that her mandated period of unpaid work in Poundland was in breach of the forced labour provisions of the Human Rights Act.
Figures released by the Department of Work and Pensions this week revealed that 24,000 people had been referred for “mandatory work activity” between May and November 2011.
