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Harassment at CDG continues

Keith Parkins | 25.01.2008 16:22 | Repression | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements

CDG, Careers Development Group, run New Deal 'boot camps' on behalf of Job Centres.

CDG are contracted to DWP to run training courses and back to work intensive 13 week periods on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions. In reality a scam to massage the unemployment figures and to line to pockets of private training companies like CDG who are milking the taxpayers for millions and yet failing to do anything for those who are unemployed.

CDG are probably no worse than any of the other 'provision providers'. Bullying and intimidation is rife, corporate, institutional, institutionalised and individual.

 http://www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news614.htm#1

Jobseekers who have the misfortune to be sent to CDG are told they have to apply for at least four jobs each and every day.

This is way beyond what is required by the local Job Centres, by legislation and through individually agreed Jobseeker Agreements.

Jobseekers are told by CDG, if they fail to comply, sanctions will be applied, with the threat of the loss of benefit for 26 weeks.

It is impossible to find four jobs a day to apply to, not that is if one is to have a realistic chance of gaining employment. Jobseekers are therefore forced to play a numbers game, apply to any job to meet their daily quota, which is to waste not only their time but also that of the employer.

To help focus minds, from Monday, the bully-boys at CDG will be phoning every employer who has been applied to and following up every interview with a phone call to see how the Jobseeker performed.

This is an example of arbitary new rule made up on the spot.

This is harassment. It is guaranteed to piss off employers and negate any job prospects the jobseeker may have had.

It is also an appalling invasion of personal privacy and a clear breach of the Human Rights Act. Not that CDG has any understanding of privacy or security of personal information. They have been caught on more than one occasion illegally monitoring Internet use by jobseekers, have lost CVs entrusted to them, told jobseekers to hand to a job agency, passport, bank account details and national insurance number!

A recent meeting was held with officials from Basingstoke Job Centre. The clowns at CDG left the minutes lying around for all to see.

CDG is a tinderbox waiting to explode.

There was recently a kerfuffle when CDG threatened to have one jobseeker's benefit stopped because he filled out one of their time sheets incorrectly. The police were called, the office locked down, and the jobseekers sent home.

Jobseekers are being sent on employment placement (you do not get paid), a long way from home, without any prior discussion of whether the job placement confers any advantage to the jobseeker.

Hard to believe then that a bare-faced liar at CDG who struts around like a peacock with a poker up its arse, in response to questions from a Job Centre who were concerned at the abuses taking place, claimed everyone was happy!!!

Good news is that Members of Parliament are at long last starting to ask questions about New Deal and the amount of public money that is being poured down the drain.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=507942&in_page_id=1770

Warning: If you are a Jobseeker at CDG reading this article, you will be threatened with loss of benefits.

More on the abuses at CDG

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/11/386689.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/388044.html?c=on
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/12/388504.html

Keith Parkins

Comments

Hide the following comment

more shit at CDG

28.01.2008 15:21

When we were told job applications would be followed up, we were told that for each and every job application we had to provide proof, ie a copy of an e-mail, letter or application we send to an employer, if we make a visit in person, we have to provide proof of that visit. To be attached to our time sheets.

How though are we to provide proof of telephone calls, will this bunch of bastards be asking for itemised billing records?

This is completely over the top.

We were told it was a 'new rule', which indicates its arbitrary nature, that they are making the rules up on the spot.

'Thou shalt not wear jeans' is the latest stupid rule. Offenders will be punished with loss of benefit.

Does this mean 'The Goth' who comes in dressed in black with body piercings will have to dress differently? But then she is a tutor!

Time spent at CDG is a sentence for being unemployed, you will be subjected to bullying, degradation, humiliation, racism if you are black.

One jobseeker was told to go out and buy a new pair of shoes. When he came back, he was told go out and buy another pair as these are not good enough.

Sex offenders mix with teenage girls, one tutor has all the indications of being a coke head.

Does Basingstoke Job Centre know that notes of their sensitive meeting, including putting more sex offenders on the course, were left lying around for everyone to read? Maybe someone should tell them.

One guy had his mobile phone stolen. The bastards at CDG did not want to know. Did one of these bastards nick it, wouldn't put anything past these bastards. They are happy to stitch people up, tell a pack of lies to get benefits stopped, so only one small step to nicking phones.

The guy who was forcibly ejected from the building for incorrectly filling out his time sheets, was trying to talk on the phone to his Job Adviser to complain at what was happening to him. He had been subjected to bullying and racial discrimination by the jumped up little Scottish thug. The thug pushed his face right in the guy's face. The situation could have been calmed down, instead the thugs at CDG stoked the flames and made the situation worse.

Jobseekers were recently sent home early. Internet was not working. Jobseekers told to put on their time sheets 'job search'.

Dipshit, thick-as-shit, Scottish thug goes around looking for trouble, always poking his nose in where it does not belong. He thinks he's a hard man. The smirk will be on the other side of his face when someone smacks him one.

Rumours are being spread, probably by the bare-faced liar herself, that the manager was sexually assaulted. In her dreams. You'd have to be desperate and put a sack over her head first. No police called. No questions asked. More lies from CDG.

Bullying is still bad.

CDG try to claim what is written here is a pack of lies. Do they think us stupid? We see with our own eyes what is going on. What is written here is the truth.

And it is having an effect. Staff morale is at an all time low. When these comments first appeared they all went around like a bunch of headless chickens, a hit team was sent in to try and clean up the shit and the useless manager was sent away. We can now stay in the building at lunchtime, can use the front entrance and not be forced to use the fire exit. We do though still have the manager hanging around the fire exit smoking, setting a bad example. Nothing has been done about the breaches of Health and Safety. Nothing has been done about the bullying, which if anything is getting worse.

Why are CDG threatening jobseekers with loss of benefit if they read what is written here? What are they afraid of? Are they all afraid of being found out, of more people speaking out at the abuse, of losing their jobs, 'cos if they are, they bloody well deserve it, they're a bunch of lying little shits the lot of them.

cdg insider


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