Name and Shame Job Bridge

In what way?

I personally have no problem with proving I'm looking for work, and always comply with paperwork requested by Welfare. In fact the last time paperwork had to be presented, I handed over a neat little file (almost two inches thick) with every single job application I had made in the preceding six months. The look of fear that passed over the inspector's face was priceless! Much to his relief, I told him he could keep the file as I had copies.

Whether I run a car or not is no-one's bloody business but my own once the rent's been paid.

It is not my fault I cannot find a job. Why the hell should I pay the price for trying to do the right thing?

sligoface wrote: »

sunflower it's best to just ignore posts from people like yore who are of the opinion that all of the half a million people on the dole in this country are all scroungers and who does a dance of joy when he hears of a struggling person being denied an entitlement to help they need.

Well done on the telepathic abilities and not at all generalisations. You should try to turn that into a business.

sligoface wrote: »

Anyone who says things like 'i would just work jobbridge in the summer and get a job after and not be worrying about handouts' obviously has no idea of what the unemployed are facing.

sligoface wrote: »

And there's no way a person shouldn't be punished for that by being denied a fuel entitlement - after all, it's not a 'fun and games' entitlement, it's for heating your home, a basic need. Of course some people will think we just want the extra 20 for fags and booze but most of us don't.
In any case, when you consider that you earn 50 euro from the scheme but are simultaneously denied 20 euro because of the scheme, you are effectively working full time for euro a week or 6 euro a day. that is unacceptable to any sane person.

When I finished college I partially signed on. Partially insofar that i had part time work a couple of days when I picked up work. I was getting about 30 Euro a day for these days. I wasn't any better off taking the work. Fair enough, you might call me an eejit for doing it but I only had to do it for three months. Others who wouldn't do it are probably still on the dole moaning.

sligoface wrote: »

The fact is that many people like sunflower and myself have been denied a 20 euro fuel allowance that they would otherwise be entitled to if they didn't do jobbridge. a large portion of people on jobbridge are in their first year of unemployment, ie: recent graduates, or people who have just been made redundant. they are not layabouts so they are doing something that they think is going to help them become more employable.

How could a "recent" graduate have built up 390 days on the dole??? :rolleyes: If you class yourself as a "recent graduate" who has still managed to be on the dole + jobsbridge for over 390 days after getting a valuable education, virtually for free, from the state, and your main priority is to see how you can get an extra 20 Euro into your hand then I don't think that was money well invested in you.

sligoface wrote: »

Also, the fact that this information is nowhere on their website or in the contract is a major concern. I believe it was most likely left off on purpose so that interns wouldn't know about it until it was too late and were faced with either leaving the internship and losing the fifty euro and on top of that still having to wait months until they qualified for fuel allowance, or stay on the scheme because they can't afford to heat our homes otherwise. I have contacted them and they said they intend to make the information more visible but have not done so yet.

Hmmm. I thought it was well known that you are taken off the live register when you are on an internship? Basically you are saying "why don't they make sure we understand the best way to play the system if we can't understand it ourselves?"

sligoface wrote: »

The thread about interns not being able to get fuel allowance was closed, don't know why it was as it is obviously still a talking point, and this thread was more about name and shaming companies taking advantage of free labour which is very important because the government won't do scrap the scheme and companies will use it unless it hurts their bottom line, for example, if all of us who are unemployed or have family who are unemployed stop doing business with them.

I'm not a moderator. I know nothing about closing threads. And the rest of that paragraph is using real words but I can't make out what the point of it is.

sligoface wrote: »

Tesco pulled out of the scheme we need to try and get other companies to do the same. Like Centra.

Finally getting around to what Ireally came to do: was post this link http://bit.ly/RBnYP4

This exact ad for a jobbridge intern was on the fas website two weeks ago as a paid position and has now changed into an internship. I guess someone must have sent Centra a memo about the free labour available on jobbridge.

Surely not even yore can defend the fact that large chain stores like Centra with a turnover of over half a billion a year are taking entry level jobs like working in shops out of the economy and replacing them with unpaid internships. That position would clearly be a job for someone in the community as working in a shop traditionally is.

Centra is a franchise as far as I understand it. The shops are mainly independent owner-operated for the most part. It's not Tesco. You can google "franchise" if you don't understand it.

sligoface wrote: »

In fact, if you do a search in my area (sligo) for jobs on the FAS website and for type enter the value: Jobs, you get 28 (a good portion of which are part time temporary, etc). When you enter Interns, you get 31. CE scheme =13. Says it all really about where this country is headed if schemes like Jobbridge are allowed to continue. It's either work for free or emigrate. And if you can't afford to emigrate and don't want to work for free, then you will be at the mercy of the government's crusade against welfare payments.

What's wrong with the centra internship? Don't be so high and mighty looking down on certain positions. That's what you are doing. That internship would be ideal for a kid straight out of secondary school who maybe didn't get the opportunities to go to college like you did. People on these type of threads sicken me sometimes. They belittle manual and menial jobs being on jobsbridge. Would you do that same job on minimum wage? Honestly, would you? Probably not. you're just moaning about it and using it as a target to project your own failings onto.

jobsbridge isn't "work for free". Maybe at a stretch it's "work for not much more than the dole but gain valuable experience".

mfitzy wrote: »

Where you hear this Sunflower? If so it's good news. Though I'd prefer it be abolished immediately (it should be).

Why do you want to ruin a decent scheme for everyone else?

It just reeks of people who don't want to put the effort in themselves, but at the same time don't want to see others putting in the effort and improving themselves and getting on in life. I don't know if it's jealousy/laziness/begrudgery or a mixture of all three.

If you don't want to do the scheme then don't. But let others who might not have had your advantages be allowed to make a start for themselves.


You probably even have yourself convinced that if it was scrapped tomorrow, you'd be starting your dream job on Monday :rolleyes:

ABajaninCork wrote: »

I wouldn't get too excited. This is manna from heaven for the crooked politicians and greedy employers. It is NOT going to end, trust me on that one. Sorry to be so cynical...:(

That's crazy conspiracy sh1te. Crooked politicians are creaming it from jobsbridge now? How so? Any concrete examples?...actually, any tinfoil-hat examples even? I'd love to know the theory behind this


You don't help your argument with crazy stuff like that. By all means have a reasoned debate but when you say stuff like that, it just makes people cringe.

yore wrote: »

That's crazy conspiracy sh1te. Crooked politicians are creaming it from jobsbridge now? How so? Any concrete examples?...actually, any tinfoil-hat examples even? I'd love to know the theory behind this


You don't help your argument with crazy stuff like that. By all means have a reasoned debate but when you say stuff like that, it just makes people cringe.

You are entitled to your opinion. I am entitled to mine. Over and out.

ABajaninCork wrote: »

You are entitled to your opinion. I am entitled to mine. Over and out.

Nothing to back up your theory then? I'm disappointed. I was expecting a dossier of "Jim Corr" facts about Bilderberg Group and lizard people and new world order

Come on lads, lets not have a go at each other.

micromary wrote: »

Just think that Yore is one of those people who does not live in the real world. They live in cloud cuckoo land as far as i can make out.

sunflower27 wrote: »

LOL yore

Was surprised to see you still on here, saying again and again that Jobbridge is not the scam so many seem to think it is.

Fair play, you are certainly dedicated to your cause.

sligoface wrote: »

sunflower it's best to just ignore posts from people like yore who are of the opinion that all of the half a million people on the dole in this country are all scroungers and who does a dance of joy when he hears of a struggling person being denied an entitlement to help they need. Anyone who says things like 'i would just work jobbridge in the summer and get a job after and not be worrying about handouts' obviously has no idea of what the unemployed are facing. the fact that you are doing an internship shows you are not one who is happy to sponge and most would agree you should be entitled to fuel allowance since you are unable to find full time paid work (thanks in part, to the jobbridge free labour scheme).

Surely not even yore can defend the fact that large chain stores like Centra with a turnover of over half a billion a year are taking entry level jobs like working in shops out of the economy and replacing them with unpaid internships. That position would clearly be a job for someone in the community as working in a shop traditionally is.

sky2424 wrote: »

Well yore- I've read all your posts and conclude that:
You fail to grasp the simple key message behind other posters contributions.
You sprout random baseless tripe.
You really haven't one iota about the topic at hand.

But the most intriguing (and entertaining!) part is that you're completely naive as to how unbelievably inept you are!

mfitzy wrote: »

Ah come on..how would Yore cope if this "beneficial" scheme were to end?

ABajaninCork wrote: »

Lolz! I neither know nor care how Yore copes. I'm no longer interested!

micromary wrote: »

God bless Yore. He reminds me of Liam Brady on the football last nite defending the indefensable. I did not read ur threads but u already bore me to bits:DKeep on fighting in ur sad world

Well you know what they say, "if you're not good enough to play the ball, play the man instead" .....


Best of luck to all ye deserving and entitled people. I know that jobsbridge is the cause of all your ills. The fact that some of ye might be claiming for longer than jobsbridge has been running is irrelevant of course. As one of the poster's pointed out, it's just the crooked politicians that are creaming it off your hard working backs. I believe that the day after it is scrapped, your doors will be broken down by mobs of employers fighting each other off in a bidding frenzy for your services.



"blame blame blame" is such a defeatist attitude to have but it does give a person something to project their blame onto and an excuse for not trying something new.
To live in such a wealthy country a Ireland and to have all those opportunities on your doorstep and to not put in the basic effort to avail of them or even appreciate them is so sad.

MicroMary, enjoy your holiday in the USA. When you are over there pop into some of the poorer neighbourhoods where there are people living off food stamps with zero chance of ever getting to go to a college or getting a start on any sort of internship similar to anything jobsbridge provides. Tell them how in real world Ireland, one can only get about $250 a week into your hand after their rent/free medical care/child benefit etc. etc. invite them to save up their food stamps so that they can come visit you and experience the harshness of your real world in Ireland. They may feel sorry for you and share their food stamps with you.
Enjoy your swim.

sunflower27 wrote: »

You seem a bit misguided here, yore.

No-one has said that JobBridge is the cause of everyone's ills, but yourself.

What people have said repeatedly is that the scheme was poorly put together and allows for exploitation on a huge scale. And I speak from experience as I did an internship.

The businesses pay nothing for free staff. The government is forking out more money for the likes of huge companies such as Centra. It is happening and will continue to happen. Surely with theamount of debt this country is in they should be reducing spending, not adding to it.

You can dress it up asexperience all you like, but no-one needs 9months training to do the vast majority of the internships. And leaving a person still unemployed at the end of it is a disgrace.

The scheme's aim was to make it look like they have got unemployment to go down. It is politics after all and all about getting in for another term.

The scheme sucks on so many levels. Like anything, some people will benefit, but overall this shceme is a rotten egg and years to come will be analysed and remembered for it.

Your local centra probably isn't a "huge company". It is more likely owned by someone who lives on your street. However the franchise probably provides standardised training and guidelines for the franchise owner and as such would be better training than if it was just "Mary down the road" running the shop on her own. No disrespect meant to "Mary".

So what if some people try to take advantage of the scheme. Show me a scheme that doesn't. I'd say that someone could easily start a "name and shame welfare cheats" thread. It would hardly be justification for the scrapping of welfare although that is analogous to the atmosphere here!

I understand it is difficult for people. but difficulty is subjective relative to what people had before. Read the Irish Times about the wife of the guard who can't cope on a gross salary of 75,000. If you earned an average wage previously, then you will look at that and wish you had that 75,000 and think of what you could do with that. Nobody appreciates what they have, only what they have not.

If I was on the dole, I'd be learning new skills. I'm not just saying that flippantly. I have a decent job but I work long hours. Today I did about 13 hours although nomally it would only be 10-11. I also try to study for at least an hour a day when I get in from work. I'm taking certifications and "professional" exams (not directly related to my work) in my own time. I also have a sibling working for not much more than minimum wage and studying and training to be an accountant. Imagine how much easier it would be to be able to devote 5 hours a day to your study. That would still give plenty of time to continue with a work search. If you want to get into law, take the FE1s. Study for the actuarial exams? go back and re-read your French school books. Take the basic accounting exams. Learn some computer programming. Study for the HPAT and fulfil that ambition of becoming a doctor. The possibilities are only as limited as the obstacles that you can put in front of them

I think it's a sin when people waste their opportunities yet still moan about it. I'm also trying to learn a foreign language but it's going slow as I have to spend all my time on my other subjects and work.

I emigrated to work. I don't live in Ireland. I have friends who came from genuinely poor countries. Sometimes they amaze me with what they've achieved when they mention certain things they went through. From nothing and with only a fraction of the assistance I had in Ireland. And I never considered myself well off when I was in Ireland. As I said, I've never owned a car or house or laptop (Someone gave me an old laptop last year). I'm well into my 30s. And I lived in a rural area.

But I was well off, and so are you.

I am going to bed. I am tired. I want to get 5.5 hours sleep tonight.

Solair wrote: »

How much is this system costing by removing low paid (tax and prs paying) jobs out of the system and replacing them with government paid replacements??

It is €200./intern per month for either 6 or9 months.

I think there was 6,000 interns at any one time,it may have risen to 7k, can't remember.

Close enough to €1million/month for 6,000 interns.

Disgraceful... but I suppose it is a small price to pay to have the media reporting you have managed to do what FF couldn't, ie. reduce unemployment (as those interns are removed off the live register) :rolleyes: