Have you been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?
Poll
Are unpaid trial work shifts fair?
Tell Stewart Malcolm McDonald, MP for Glasgow South, about your views on being asked to work an unpaid trial shift.
He has proposed a new law which would ban the practice of asking job seekers to work a trial shift without pay. He wants to know:
- Have you been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?
- After completing it, were you offered the job?
- Do you feel that students are particularly affected by this issue?
- Do you think it is fair to ask someone to work an unpaid trial shift?
Stewart will be reading and responding to your comments so join the discussion and share your experiences.
He has proposed a new law which would ban the practice of asking job seekers to work a trial shift without pay. He wants to know:
- Have you been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?
- After completing it, were you offered the job?
- Do you feel that students are particularly affected by this issue?
- Do you think it is fair to ask someone to work an unpaid trial shift?
Stewart will be reading and responding to your comments so join the discussion and share your experiences.
Scroll to see replies
Original post by Official House of Commons
Tell Stewart Malcolm McDonald, MP for Glasgow South, about your views on being asked to work an unpaid trial shift.
He has proposed a new law which would ban the practice of asking job seekers to work a trial shift without pay. He wants to know:
- Have you been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?
- After completing it, were you offered the job?
- Do you feel that students are particularly affected by this issue?
- Do you think it is fair to ask someone to work an unpaid trial shift?
Stewart will be reading and responding to your comments so join the discussion and share your experiences.
He has proposed a new law which would ban the practice of asking job seekers to work a trial shift without pay. He wants to know:
- Have you been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?
- After completing it, were you offered the job?
- Do you feel that students are particularly affected by this issue?
- Do you think it is fair to ask someone to work an unpaid trial shift?
Stewart will be reading and responding to your comments so join the discussion and share your experiences.
I think it's completely fair to ask candidates to work for maybe 1 hour in an unpaid trial. The employer doesn't deserve to be wasting money on candidates who may not work properly. However, any amount of unpaid trial more than 1 hour shouldn't be allowed.
Also, you should ask the MP about proposing a bill with the other republicans to introduce a fair, democratic head of state which we can elect instead of having a backward system which wastes hundreds of millions every year a.k.a the monarchy. Don't use the tourism argument because that was proven false, tourists don't come here to see the Queen they come here for many other things and visiting Buckingham palace is one of those things. Most tourists come here to visit family.
Anyone who agrees with me should check out and join www.republic.org.uk
i worked a 2 hour trial for free with no food, tips anything just an excuse for free labour because they were short staffed.
complete waste of my time. this was meat&shake. theyre not poor and they have more than one restaurant.
my sister did am unpaid trial, but got a shift meal and tips and the job.
this was an independant and less popular restaurant.
i think a lot of places just use people for free labour as ive seen it and im not the only one..
complete waste of my time. this was meat&shake. theyre not poor and they have more than one restaurant.
my sister did am unpaid trial, but got a shift meal and tips and the job.
this was an independant and less popular restaurant.
i think a lot of places just use people for free labour as ive seen it and im not the only one..
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by Official House of Commons
Tell Stewart Malcolm McDonald, MP for Glasgow South, about your views on being asked to work an unpaid trial shift.
He has proposed a new law which would ban the practice of asking job seekers to work a trial shift without pay. He wants to know:
- Have you been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?
- After completing it, were you offered the job?
- Do you feel that students are particularly affected by this issue?
- Do you think it is fair to ask someone to work an unpaid trial shift?
Stewart will be reading and responding to your comments so join the discussion and share your experiences.
He has proposed a new law which would ban the practice of asking job seekers to work a trial shift without pay. He wants to know:
- Have you been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?
- After completing it, were you offered the job?
- Do you feel that students are particularly affected by this issue?
- Do you think it is fair to ask someone to work an unpaid trial shift?
Stewart will be reading and responding to your comments so join the discussion and share your experiences.
I don't think its right to force someone to work an unpaid trial shift. People seem to ignore that having to work unpaid is either slavery or a punishment for crime(community service) and that criminals in prison automatically get food and shelter but when its unemployed people society will look down at them treating them worse than criminals.
I think the Jobcentre should provide help and support for Jobseekers and also offer them opportunities for work experience but none of it must be forced and they should get their money automatically as it is their basic human rights. If prisoners were denied access to food in a prison it would often be considered a breach of human rights but somehow jobcentre sanctions aren't?
To add to this, I quote a paragraph from this article:
"If, for example, a hospital failed to provide food and water to an extremely vulnerable patient who was entirely dependant upon staff for personal care, over a sustained period, resulting in death, this would be likely to breach Article 2."
but why is this not a breach in human rights:
"If, for example, the Government failed to provide food and water to an extremely vulnerable citizen who was entirely dependant upon the Government for personal support, over a sustained period, resulting in death, this would be likely to breach Article 2."
There are tonnes of examples of the above and many Jobseekers often tend to be very vulnerable as they are often disabled and are not even fit for work as they have been unfairly removed from disability benefits.
The idea that the Jobseekers are lazy and don't want to work is classist hatred being spread from the media - most Jobseekers want to try and get an opportunity to get a good job but are finding it hard to get jobs they don't need to be forced into anything but a lot of them are very vulnerable and need a lot of support.
I also advise the following logic for those insistent that those on Jobseekers are to blame for being unemployed:
There are less vacancies than the number of unemployed people and thus no matter how hard anyone works some people will be unemployed and thus its just a matter of being unlucky.
People might start to argue that you could become self employed but that logic doesn't really work either due to the concepts of market share and competition meaning there are a limited number of opportunities for businesses.
If you manage to open up a new business and do well that will normally mean that you will be outcompeting other businesses and thus gaining market share from them and if the size of the market doesn't increase substainally that will normally mean other businesses not doing as well and having to make people redundant and employ less people creating more unemployment which cancels the amount of employment you might have created.
However, the unemployment situation can be avoided if the Government invests and creates many more jobs.
Thus, it may make sense to rename Jobseekers Allowance as Unemployment Compensation Payment recoginising that it is the Government that is responsible for ensuring that people are employed because at the moment it is impossible for substantial numbers of people to not be unemployed and if they tried harder then perhaps they might get jobs over other people but then the other people would be unemployed so roughly that amount of people has to be unemployed so its not the fault of the unemployed that they are unemployed.
(edited 6 years ago)
An hour or two is ok as a trial to establish whether someone is suitable but beyond that it's not fair. People who don't get paid during work sometimes go to court so it shouldn't be different/more acceptable for a trial period.
I agree that a trial of up to 2 hours is fair, however I feel that it should also be announced ahead of time. I was trialed for about half an hour when I stayed working at a supermarket many years ago and o feel this is completely fair to make sure that I was able to do the job applied for
Original post by Official House of Commons
Tell Stewart Malcolm McDonald, MP for Glasgow South, about your views on being asked to work an unpaid trial shift.
He has proposed a new law which would ban the practice of asking job seekers to work a trial shift without pay. He wants to know:
- Have you been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?
- After completing it, were you offered the job?
- Do you feel that students are particularly affected by this issue?
- Do you think it is fair to ask someone to work an unpaid trial shift?
Stewart will be reading and responding to your comments so join the discussion and share your experiences.
He has proposed a new law which would ban the practice of asking job seekers to work a trial shift without pay. He wants to know:
- Have you been asked to work an unpaid trial shift?
- After completing it, were you offered the job?
- Do you feel that students are particularly affected by this issue?
- Do you think it is fair to ask someone to work an unpaid trial shift?
Stewart will be reading and responding to your comments so join the discussion and share your experiences.
I’ve worked a 4 hour trial shift before and didn’t even get a call back. I have friends that have been asked to do 3 trial shifts of 6 hours t a bar without pay and then they didn’t get anything.
An hour or so is fair but more than that isn’t. Although I think that in a trial shift you should be paid for travel.
I#d say an hour is fair enough to be unpaid, but travel expenses should be covered. It shouldn't cost a job seeker to anything to do a trial shift when they aren't getting paid.
Many thanks for your responses so far. It's interesting to see the different experiences people have had with unpaid work trials. It's clear though most of us either have, or know somebody who has, done a work trial.
My Bill will make it clear that if a trial period is to be offered then the employer must pay up for that period whether or not a full offer of employment is made. To be clear, I want to ensure genuine work shadowing and volunteering opportunities are protected from the Bill, and then ensure employers cannot exploit such loopholes.
I am keen to hear more views of those who want to tell me what they think about this practice and how they would like to see it change and offer people better protection in the workplace.
My Bill will make it clear that if a trial period is to be offered then the employer must pay up for that period whether or not a full offer of employment is made. To be clear, I want to ensure genuine work shadowing and volunteering opportunities are protected from the Bill, and then ensure employers cannot exploit such loopholes.
I am keen to hear more views of those who want to tell me what they think about this practice and how they would like to see it change and offer people better protection in the workplace.
Surely an unpaid trial shift is a trivial issue from any angle. Honestly, I would expect our MPs to have more important things to be getting on with. I'm sure The Independent will like it though.
In principle, though, if a person chooses to take up an offer to show that they can work somewhere for a few hours, performs poorly, and does not get the job, where is the injustice in their not being paid for that time? Exactly why should an employer be forced to pay that person?
Do you think there is any prospect that this might make things more difficult for applicants with less experience in the jobs they're applying for?
In principle, though, if a person chooses to take up an offer to show that they can work somewhere for a few hours, performs poorly, and does not get the job, where is the injustice in their not being paid for that time? Exactly why should an employer be forced to pay that person?
Do you think there is any prospect that this might make things more difficult for applicants with less experience in the jobs they're applying for?
I would do, if they ever give me a chance.
It's an agreement between the potential employer and the job seeker and it should stay that way.
In my view, an unpaid trial shift is essentially an extended interview, albeit a more practical one. It's a way for the employer to judge whether or not you are worth hiring. It's low risk for them and entirely optional for you. Nobody is being forced into anything here.
If you feel they are taking advantage, or you don't want to risk paying for transportation only to never be hired, turn it down or walk away.
The one thing I do take umbrage with, however, is employers exploiting temporary free labour during busy periods and not telling the job seeker. You should always ask about their intentions and they should never be allowed to lie.
In my view, an unpaid trial shift is essentially an extended interview, albeit a more practical one. It's a way for the employer to judge whether or not you are worth hiring. It's low risk for them and entirely optional for you. Nobody is being forced into anything here.
If you feel they are taking advantage, or you don't want to risk paying for transportation only to never be hired, turn it down or walk away.
The one thing I do take umbrage with, however, is employers exploiting temporary free labour during busy periods and not telling the job seeker. You should always ask about their intentions and they should never be allowed to lie.
Original post by TimmonaPortella
Surely an unpaid trial shift is a trivial issue from any angle. Honestly, I would expect our MPs to have more important things to be getting on with. I'm sure The Independent will like it though.
In principle, though, if a person chooses to take up an offer to show that they can work somewhere for a few hours, performs poorly, and does not get the job, where is the injustice in their not being paid for that time? Exactly why should an employer be forced to pay that person?
Do you think there is any prospect that this might make things more difficult for applicants with less experience in the jobs they're applying for?
In principle, though, if a person chooses to take up an offer to show that they can work somewhere for a few hours, performs poorly, and does not get the job, where is the injustice in their not being paid for that time? Exactly why should an employer be forced to pay that person?
Do you think there is any prospect that this might make things more difficult for applicants with less experience in the jobs they're applying for?
People are desperate for jobs and dont really have a choice of saying no. the govt is there to ensure regulations are in place to prevent a race to the bottom.
You get paid for your time, not your output. Where is the justice is slave labour you mean?
An Employer could potentially cover 100% of the shift with trial labour interviews.
There is a balance of course between helping people with less experience and bad employers, the right thing to do is strike a balance not ignore the issue.
Employers spend £100s of recruitment campaigns, paying someone £7+ for a hour of trial labour isnt the end of the world.
(edited 6 years ago)
Original post by TimmonaPortella
Surely an unpaid trial shift is a trivial issue from any angle. Honestly, I would expect our MPs to have more important things to be getting on with. I'm sure The Independent will like it though.
In principle, though, if a person chooses to take up an offer to show that they can work somewhere for a few hours, performs poorly, and does not get the job, where is the injustice in their not being paid for that time? Exactly why should an employer be forced to pay that person?
Do you think there is any prospect that this might make things more difficult for applicants with less experience in the jobs they're applying for?
In principle, though, if a person chooses to take up an offer to show that they can work somewhere for a few hours, performs poorly, and does not get the job, where is the injustice in their not being paid for that time? Exactly why should an employer be forced to pay that person?
Do you think there is any prospect that this might make things more difficult for applicants with less experience in the jobs they're applying for?
They don't tend to choose to do these unpaid trial shifts they are forced to do it and by definition of slavery that is slavery.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/dr-simon-duffy/workfare-is-modernised-slavery_b_2773051.html
(edited 6 years ago)
I did and I got the job but I felt three hours was taking advantage of me.
I think one hour is fair
I think one hour is fair
I got paid for trial shifts in mcdonalds of all places, so i don't see why i shouldn't get paid...
To be honest I took a placement year and voluntarily worked 36 hours per week for 40 weeks. A couple of hours unpaid aren't going to make a lot difference, although, it it was a large company with plenty of money I wouldn't be too impressed.
Original post by faloodeh
i worked a 2 hour trial for free with no food, tips anything just an excuse for free labour because they were short staffed.
complete waste of my time.
my sister did am unpaid trial, but got a shift meal and tips and the job.
i think a lot of places just use people for free labour as ive seen it and im not the only one..
complete waste of my time.
my sister did am unpaid trial, but got a shift meal and tips and the job.
i think a lot of places just use people for free labour as ive seen it and im not the only one..
Why did you even agree to it?
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