The Gateway Employment Scheme (Help Needed)

malcy

I apologise for this being a long post but i needed to get the basics out there.

I started an employment scheme with the county council in Nov 2014 through the Gateway scheme. I took it on happy to be getting something to do and looking forward to it.

At my first interview there was talk of a job at the end of it. I was also told that there would be up to 30 different courses & qualifications offered to me over the 22 month contract. Neither of these were in anyway true.

I have done 3 or 4 courses and none of them were really of much use to even the job i was doing. We would be painting, picking up rubbish, collecting signs, putting signs out etc etc. We were always doing something and getting a full days work. Now is a totally different story....

A few weeks back, some council workers from a nearby town came to our town and put a fear into the full time workers here that they could lose their jobs and be replaced with Gateway employees because of the town being overstaffed so jobs would have to go. With that, everything changed. I had one employee who i have always got on with, shout & roar at me in the street that i was to do nothing but sit in the cold shed with no electricity in which we are based next to the council office and not pick up a black bag or brush from now until we finish. All this because when he asked what i had being doing that morning i said 'filling sandbags'.

I was advised to take this incident further but chose not to due to not wanting to cause any trouble. So for the past 3 weeks of work, it's a week on/week off deal, we have done a total of just under 2 hours actual work. 2 hours. We get there at 8am. If there is rubbish to be picked up around the outside of the offices, we pick it up. 4 of us doing that takes 10-20 mins at maximum and this is usually only on a Monday as teenagers drink at generally make a complete mess of the area.

The rest of the time, we are sat in the aforementioned shed, smoking fags, talking and trying to keep warm. Then it's breakfast time. Sometimes i go back up there at 10.30. I was leaving by 11 due to nobody coming to check on us, give us work or even the time of bloody day. I went in this Monday for 1 hour and left. I haven't been in since, don't know when i will go back.

We're are being treated like crap and they are hoping that we won't say anything to them about it. There isn't even anyone that we can log these issues with. There was talk of a full time permanent job out working on the roads until October. I was told it had to be discussed with the relevant Unions. I hear today that it's more than likely not going to happen now. I'm assuming that the full timers are puttung that one to rest because we are 'stealing their jobs'. I would understand if that were true but they only just manage to do the work they have now never mind anything else.

Am i right to not go back in and assume we will be ignored or is there any place i can log all the issues that i will be taken seriously and listened to? Thanks for reading if you have made it this far, any advice would be appreciated...

Cpurcell16

Hi malcy, I am currently just finished the gateway scheme. Which has benefited me in so many ways. I was indoors based in the human resources department. In my opinion I would contact who ever is over you're scheme in the area, probably some one in the hr department and tell them. Hope you get it sorted.

Mrs OBumble

OP, you've been on a scheme-job for over a year: How many real jobs have you applied for in that time? Have you got any interviews? What's your plan to get a paid job?

TBH, I feel some sympathy for the paid staff here: they're seeing you coming in and undercutting them. No surprise that they're not happy with you.

malcy

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

OP, you've been on a scheme-job for over a year: How many real jobs have you applied for in that time? Have you got any interviews? What's your plan to get a paid job?

TBH, I feel some sympathy for the paid staff here: they're seeing you coming in and undercutting them. No surprise that they're not happy with you.

A couple with no luck. The reason I stuck with it was to get all the courses and qualifications which were always being talked about but never actually given to us.

I completely understand where the full timers are coming from. I would be the same in their position. They should be voicing their concerns with management, nit giving us a hard time.

malcy

Cpurcell16 wrote: »

Hi malcy, I am currently just finished the gateway scheme. Which has benefited me in so many ways. I was indoors based in the human resources department. In my opinion I would contact who ever is over you're scheme in the area, probably some one in the hr department and tell them. Hope you get it sorted.

Thanks. One of the main problems is actually finding the relevant person to talk to. Will keep trying.

jocmilt

Cpurcell16 wrote: »

I was indoors based in the human resources department

Would I be correct to assume you are female if you were given one of the indoor/easy jobs out of the weather and danger?

jocmilt

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

OP, you've been on a scheme-job for over a year: How many real jobs have you applied for in that time? Have you got any interviews? What's your plan to get a paid job?

TBH, I feel some sympathy for the paid staff here: they're seeing you coming in and undercutting them. No surprise that they're not happy with you.

What about their union? IMPACT, isn't it? The same ''union'' that is allowing Irish Water vans to go around with the Local Authority sticker on them to avoid being identified as Irish Water. What would you expect from a union that would put it's own members in danger to give cover to an obnoxious private company. I wonder what the sweetheart deal was for this and for ignoring non-union workers on the job. I don't care if they are sitting in the 'cold shed' or not. If they are working they get a days pay or they don't work.

That's how unions used to be before they got cozy with the government/bosses

jocmilt

malcy wrote: »

Thanks. One of the main problems is actually finding the relevant person to talk to. Will keep trying.

You didn't/won't find anyone to talk to you. Nobody in local authority admin gives a toss about anything but filling out the right forms to keep their own cushy job safe.

Lean the lesson and move on mate