APPRENTICESHIPS FOR ALL ?????........

A major outcome of Thatcher’ introduction of neo-liberalism into the British economy in the early 1980’s was the sharp rise in unemployment especially among young people.  In areas that saw the collapse of old industries such as mining, textiles, steel, car manufacture and ship building, the young people of the time saw their futures consigned to the dole. They represented a whole generation of young people that were never to work and who make up the core of today’s long term unemployed. In Black communities where gaining employment had always been a problem the unemployment rates for young people spiralled to over 50% and arguably laid the foundations for the uprisings across every major city in 1981.

The Government response at the time was to come up with training programmes to prepare young people to work.  The most famous of these was the Youth opportunities programme (YOPS) which was run by the Manpower Service Commission Schemes. It was designed to offer 12 months training and aimed at school leavers, but was notorious as a cheap labour scheme where participants got little useful training and no chance of a permanent job at the end unless they were part of a trade union negotiated scheme.

Thirty years on the 2008-09 recessions saw unemployment rise to 2.5million, with far higher numbers finding themselves out of work.  This exacerbated the situation in black communities where high levels of worklessness already existed and where for young people, gaining access to work was already a problem.  A report published by the institute of Public Policy Research in January 2010 showed that almost half (48%) of Black people aged between16–24 were unemployed – compared to the rate of unemployment among white young people which stood at 20%.

In February 2011 the Coalition Government Minister John Hayes announced that the Government would “increase the budget for Apprenticeships to over £1,400 million in 2011-12, helping to create a new generation of skilled workers to drive economic growth”. This increase is an extension to current Government apprenticeship schemes that are coordinated by the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) and the money is aimed at creating 100,000 extra apprenticeships by 2014.

However, the TUC have had a long standing concern about the difficulties young black workers face gaining access to both employment and decent quality government training schemes.  As far back as 1984 in its report ‘Moving On’, the TUC highlighted concerns that the welfare to work New Deal Programme had poorer outcomes for young black workers. In 2005, through its “Workplace Training - a Race for Opportunity” the TUC called on the Government to use public procurement as a lever to improve the employment of black workers and to boost training, apprenticeships and skills levels.

The previous government acknowledged the lack of involvement of young black workers in apprenticeships and put in place plans to commission a number of diversity pilots that would run over a period of four years designed to improve participation in apprenticeships. The current Government has put in place the diversity pilots but has only funded the programme for a year so far with the possibility of a further 12 months funding.

The TUC, in highlighting the need for urgent action to ensure that black workers do not disproportionately continue to miss out on the benefits that apprenticeships can offer, are working to highlight three main issues which are:

• The need for comprehensive monitoring systems to enable the National Apprenticeship Service and the Government to assess how their strategy on increasing diversity in apprenticeships is working;
• The need to ensure that black workers gain access to good quality apprenticeships and that mechanisms are put in place to ensure that discrimination by employers is tackled so that they are able to obtain workplace placements;
• The need to ensure that young black women are able to access the full range of apprenticeships and do not suffer labour market segmentation in relation to access to training on the basis of their gender; and
• The need to focus on outcomes as well as apprenticeship starts to ensure that black apprentices graduate to full time jobs or higher learning.

In order to highlight these issues the TUC is holding a joint half day conference at Congress House on 6 September called ‘Apprenticeships for All’,  which is being be organised as a joint event between the TUC, Versa, Unionlearn and SERTUC.  It is aimed at union activists and negotiators, learning reps, equality reps, black activists and employers.

Without strong union intervention at workplace and public policy level it is likely that young black workers will not only miss out on the expansion in apprenticeships, but that where they do, find themselves just as many in their parents generation, engaged with the schemes that are at short term, low quality, and that do not lead to training progression or to a decent job.

UK Government Dumps on Domestic Workers

The re-emergence of domestic work as a growing area of employment in Europe over the last few years reflects a general growth in the use of workers in a domestic setting and the blurring of the line between state provided social care in domestic settings and the private social care market.  The consequence of this has been a growth in the amount of domestic workers, many of whom are women, recruited predominately from the Philippines, Africa and South America.

Many of these women work in conditions that can be described as a contemporary form of slavery where:

• Domestic work is not recognised as proper work,
• There is inadequate legal protection for workers in private households, which is aggravated by the fact that private households as well as domestic workers are not easily accessible to trade unions; and
• Domestic work is not recognised as an immigration category although large numbers of domestic workers are migrants.

The isolated, dependant and unregulated nature of working in private households, combined with gender-based and racial discrimination means that domestic workers are vulnerable to exploitative practices. They can face physical, psychological and sexual abuse, discrimination, low pay and long hours. Employers often use passport retention as a means of control.

In the UK Domestic workers have organised themselves through Kalayaan, a registered charity established in 1987 to provide advice, advocacy and support services in the UK for migrant domestic workers. Domestic workers have active in Kalayann have created a campaign called Justice 4 Domestic Workers which is supported by Unite to campaign for rights for domestic workers. They successfully campaigned for the introduction of protections in the migrant worker visa including crucially the right to change employer which as a result allowed domestic workers to leave abusive employers and not find themselves classed as undocumented workers.

In the last two years Justice 4 Domestic Workers (J4DW) has run a vigorous campaign against domestic slavery among diplomatic overseas staff.  The campaign has been backed up by a report produced by Kalayaan which showed that based on its case studies, 64% of diplomatic domestic staff work a seven day week, 57% receives £50 per week or less, and 50% work 16 hour days. In addition, 65% have their passports taken away from them and held by their employer. 58% reported they had been bullied or psychologically abused. The campaign is calling on the Government to extend the protections of the migrant domestic worker visa, most vitally the right to change employer, to cover migrant domestic workers brought to the UK by diplomats The previous immigration minister Phil Woolas made an ‘in principle’ agreement to change the system and admitted that “there is no question that we are putting those diplomatic relations above the interest of victims’. 

The current Coalition Government however has shown a callous disregard for the vulnerability and lack of right and access to justice of domestic workers.  In their headlong flight to reduce immigration by banning non EU migrants from Britain they are attempting to roll back the progress that has been made by domestic workers.  On 9 June 2011 Damian Green, Immigration Minister announced a new three month consultation on employment-related settlement. In this consultation are proposals to remove fundamental safeguards designed to protect migrant domestic workers. If implemented these proposals would lead to a return to forced labour and slavery by abolishing the route for overseas domestic workers in private households altogether or for a maximum of 6 months as a visitor only, or 12 months where accompanying a Tier 1 or Tier 2 migrant, with no possibility of extension, no right to change employer, no ability to sponsor dependants, no rights for dependants to work in the UK, and no right to settlement.  These changes if implemented would amount to a return to bonded labour.  Abolishing or time limiting the domestic workers visa would not stop migrant domestic workers from being brought to Britain and encourage an increase in trafficking via illegal routes and unlawful working.

Shamefully moves by the coalition Government to roll back rights for domestic workers are not confined to the UK. J4DW and domestic Workers worldwide have been fighting for an International labour Organisation Convention to establish basic rights for domestic workers.  The proposed convention was finally discussed and adopted at the International labour Congress annual conference in June 2011.  The ILO’s 183 member states need to ratify and implement it. But it was a triumph nonetheless that governments, employers and unions from around the world managed over a fortnight last year and a further fortnight this year, plus all the discussions in between, to agree a text, voted for by 396 delegates, with only 16 against and 63 abstentions. Disgracefully delegates had to listen to two contrary voices - the representatives of the British government and of the Confederation of British Industry calling for abstention and opposition respectively. Such action exposes the hypocrisy of a government who claims they are committed to reaching the Millennium Development Goals, not it appears if it involves giving rights non-white women workers.  Brendan Barber the TUC General Secretary said “I am appalled that the CBI voted against the convention and that the British government abstained. The votes show that employers and governments around the world disagreed with their lack of compassion - they are thoroughly isolated and should be ashamed of their position”.
UK ratification of the ILO treaty on Domestic Work also starts now. The TUC is now setting up a campaign for ratification, in alliance with Justice 4 Domestic Workers, Anti-Slavery International, Christian Aid and Oxfam, and more will be welcome.
The campaign for these workers continues and needs our help ACT NOW! Write to your MP and express your concerns or visit the Kalayaan website at   http://www.kalayaan.org.uk/ where there will be a template letter and consultation response that you can use.  The campaign for