I have been out of work for a few years while addressing my mental health through NHS therapy, a slow bureaucratic process. But I'm good now, and have been planning my future.
I was offered a job with my city council but I must have a driving licence, which I currently don't have, so I have gone for interviews with some low level work to pay for a driving test and the other day I had a job offer that will hopefully pay okay.
The issue is, I volunteered for a trial shift which I have done previously. Usually this consists of a 4 hour shift with form filling and shadowing. I received an email stating a few things I feel uncomfortable about.
- 8 hour trial shift. In the uk a trial shift can not be profitable for the company. And obviously I can't be shadowing and form filling for that amount of time.
- fingerprint scanning for safety, hours are up to manager discression. This has me concerned that the employer will be short changing me.
- pension scheme,
"For employees on minimum wage who have yet to enrol in our pension scheme then you will be paid and receive normal national living wage rates of pay in line with government age guidelines until your first pay rise above these rates
Once an employee receives a pay award more than minimum wage and becomes eligible to enrol and is invited onto our company pension scheme then the new hourly rate of pay we offer will include the 3% pension contribution. The way your hourly rate of pay is calculated will be clearly shown on all correspondence and will include the additional 3% portion of your pay which is a pension contribution. Whether the employee then decides to join the pension scheme or not is completely up to each employee to decide. Employee’s who decide to join the pension scheme will have the additional 3% portion of their hourly pay diverted to the pension scheme as required by the pension regulations to meet the employer’s liability while employee’s not joining the pension scheme will be paid the hourly rate as set out and agreed in correspondence. This policy ensures that all employees are always paid equally and there are no benefits or advantages to any employee regardless of their choice of joining the pension scheme or not.
Please note that employee’s enrolling to the pension scheme will also be subject to additional 5% deductions from their hourly pay which will then be paid into the employee’s pension scheme, again in line with all government rules.
Our company pension scheme is open to all employees when eligible. It is the employee's choice to decide whether they join the pension scheme and whether it fits with their personal circumstances.
Please note - if the percentage contributed by the employer to the pension scheme should be increased by the government at any future time, then hourly pay would be re-calculated, and the new proportion of pension payment re-directed to pension schemes.
Information about our company policies and procedures can be found on our portal page."
Sorry wall of text for the last bullet, I haven't seen a Pension Scheme done this way before.
I have sent an email back asking for confirmation on 8 hours unpaid labour. Will this have me seen as a trouble maker?
How concerned should I be with this employer?
I can appreciate that, we do need to pick our fights as the right tend to pick demos out of a hat and sometimes no one turns up other times, everyone turns up.
We are at the start of the summer, we had a very successful farmers demo backed by the right (anti Immigration, anti marxist, jewish conspiracy types, I spoke with them) in Exeter last month, I can see this being successful if not more so as their social media suggests, the farmers also organised a zoom call yesterday evening.
So I feel confident that this will be a worth while endeavour.
And again, we need to politicise the trade unions and the workers, after 14 years of Torry rule, the working class have faced devastation which has effected the capability of the union movements but we are now seeing a slow growth and we need to keep socialist ideas front and centre, counter demos are a great way to do that, we can win people over, we can recruit to our party's, and trade unions can show their purpose making union tangible.