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WHY DO PCS OPPOSE EMPLOYMENT ZONES? PCS, the Trade Union representing the vast majority of civil servants, has consistently been opposed to Employment Zones since plans were announced last summer. We are against EZ because it is an extension of compulsion and because it will result in the privatisation of work. WHAT ARE EMPLOYMENT ZONES? From April this year, EZs will be established in a number of unemployment black spots. Client groups vary, but in Liverpool it will be directed at everybody unemployed for 18 months or longer. All the Zones will be run by private companies: in the case of Liverpool, this will be Reeds. Each client will have a Personal Job Account representing six months Job Seekers Allowance. If someone finds work before the six months have elapsed, the money remaining in the Personal Job Account is kept by the company as profit. There will also be a system of bonuses paid for each person placed in work. IS THIS PRIVATISATION? Much of the work done by EZs is already done by the JobCentres. The introduction of EZ will see 72 jobs transfer locally from a Government Agency, the Employment Service, to a private company, Reeds. WHAT'S WRONG WITH COMPULSION? Very few people choose to be unemployed. Since the quicker someone is placed in work, the more profit there is to be made, it is easy to see that people will be forced into any jobs or else lose benefits. Introducing the profit motive into public services has seen deteriorating services elsewhere. What unemployed people need is help in finding decent work, not compulsion to take a £3. 60 per hour job. The public money, which will be given to Reeds as profit, could be used constructively to help people. Instead, it will go into the wallets of Reeds shareholders. WHAT IS REEDS RECORD? Reeds currently run the New Deal 18-24 programme in Hackney and City. They have consistently proved to be the least successfu1 area in Britain at finding people work under New Deal. It appears around 700 "overstayers" on New Deal were never seen by Reeds, even though they received £380 for each client. This represents £250, 000 in taxpayers' money pocketed under false pretences. In October, Reeds announced half year profits of £ 1 0-2 millions- They have yet to declare how much they have made out of the misery of unemployment. They do not recognise trade unions. SAY NO TO "WORK FIRST" As with much of the Government's "welfare reform", EZ is based on the American idea of Work First. States such as Wisconsin sold their most vulnerable citizens to forced labour in the private welfare industry. This resulted in job losses among public sector workers. Employment Zones represent an experiment with this approach in Britain. It also creates a model by which the entire welfare provision in Britain could be turned into a profit making concern.
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