The Workers Party has flatly rejected claims by the Department of Social Protection that criticism of the JobBridge internship scheme is unfounded.
Low paid and exploitation encouraged by JobBridge
Dublin North West Workers’ Party representative Jimmy Dignam said that far from being an unbalanced or unfounded representation of the extent of exploitation under JobBridge, media reports into the scheme are, if anything, conservative and understated.
Dignam said that the whole purpose of JobBridge was to promote a low-pay economy by driving down wages and weakening organised labour. He said, “Over 20 years ago a previous Minister for Social Welfare stated that Ireland needed a low-wage economy like Hong Kong. This has been the aim of successive governments ever since and is now becoming a reality. JobBridge is a major plank in that scheme as it displaces real jobs and provides unscrupulous employers with official sanction to exploit workers”
The Workers’ Party representative said that the figure of 60% of JobBridge participants securing employment within six months of completing the scheme is an insult to the intelligence of workers. “If the figure is anywhere near 60% then it has been achieved through terrorising workers to take up the most low-paid and menial of work in the likes of call centres which are run like battery hen farms and where most end up leaving after no more than a few weeks due to the being overworked, abused and treated like slaves. If that is a success it merely points to the character and lack of empathy of the acting government and in particular of the outgoing Minister”, said Jimmy Dignam.