This The Tomorrow People was a British children's science fiction television series, which ran in the 1970s. "Tomorrow People" were born to human parents but had powers such as telepathy, telekinesis, and teleportation.
Tomorrow's People are an English charity whose state they are a " national employment charity that is changing the lives of some of society's most excluded and marginalised people through work."
This week the charity execs have probably been wishing and hoping for some super powers after revelations that "volunteers" were treated badly whilst on the job at the Queen's recent Jubilee celebrations.
Two jobseekers claimed, when interviewed by the Guardian newspaper, that they had to camp under London bridge overnight, to change into their security clothes in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.
John Prescott (Former Deputy Prime Minister) accused the government of presiding over the "development of labour camps" as it emerged that up to 30 jobseekers and 50 people on apprentice wages from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth were involved in this situation.
But in response to the allegations, a spokesperson for the British Prime Minister has said this was a 'one-off' occurrence. Molly Prince, head of the company has said it is the 'nature of event work' but also said: “It was badly handled in the morning and we have apologised. We are not in the business of exploiting free labour.”and Abi Levitt, Director of development services at Tomorrow's People - stated that it was important work experience to help people get jobs. Some Conservative MPs have accused Labour of nit picking and the newspaper The Daily Mail interviewed some volunteers who were happy with what went on at the "labour camp". Then, Tomorrow's People were accused of being a "Tory" (conservative party) front!
My take. First up, I believe we have a blurring here between cheap labour/volunteering/apprentice job scheme. The three tests of volunteering for me are:
The fact that two of the conditions are not met says to me this is definitely not volunteer work.
The next issue is the treatment of the volunteers by the organisation. Is it acceptable in any way, shape or form for people to be made to sleep under a bridge on a day when thousands of people in London got hypothermia? Clearly not acceptable. No matter what event. What possessed anyone to allow this?
Lets do better
Tomorrow's People are an English charity whose state they are a " national employment charity that is changing the lives of some of society's most excluded and marginalised people through work."
This week the charity execs have probably been wishing and hoping for some super powers after revelations that "volunteers" were treated badly whilst on the job at the Queen's recent Jubilee celebrations.
Two jobseekers claimed, when interviewed by the Guardian newspaper, that they had to camp under London bridge overnight, to change into their security clothes in public, had no access to toilets for 24 hours, and were taken to a swampy campsite outside London after working a 14-hour shift in the pouring rain on the banks of the Thames on Sunday.
John Prescott (Former Deputy Prime Minister) accused the government of presiding over the "development of labour camps" as it emerged that up to 30 jobseekers and 50 people on apprentice wages from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth were involved in this situation.
But in response to the allegations, a spokesperson for the British Prime Minister has said this was a 'one-off' occurrence. Molly Prince, head of the company has said it is the 'nature of event work' but also said: “It was badly handled in the morning and we have apologised. We are not in the business of exploiting free labour.”and Abi Levitt, Director of development services at Tomorrow's People - stated that it was important work experience to help people get jobs. Some Conservative MPs have accused Labour of nit picking and the newspaper The Daily Mail interviewed some volunteers who were happy with what went on at the "labour camp". Then, Tomorrow's People were accused of being a "Tory" (conservative party) front!
My take. First up, I believe we have a blurring here between cheap labour/volunteering/apprentice job scheme. The three tests of volunteering for me are:
- Of free will. In this case, the job seekers on this program were given no choice
- For the common good. YES and NO. It may have helped people safely enjoy the Queen's Jubilee but I am not sure these job seekers would have seen it as helping the common good.
- For no monetary reward. These people were working in order to receive their Job Search Allowance payment. In other words, No work? No payment.
The fact that two of the conditions are not met says to me this is definitely not volunteer work.
The next issue is the treatment of the volunteers by the organisation. Is it acceptable in any way, shape or form for people to be made to sleep under a bridge on a day when thousands of people in London got hypothermia? Clearly not acceptable. No matter what event. What possessed anyone to allow this?
Lets do better
