Supermarket chain Tesco has revealed it is to start paying young people it recruits as part of the government’s controversial work experience programme.
The company, Britain’s biggest private sector employer, has come under fire in recent days from the Right to Work campaign, which has claimed the scheme amounts to little more than “slave labour”. Tesco had been expected to face a wave of protests outside its shops today.
“We know it is difficult for young people to give up benefits for a short-term placement with no permanent job at the end of it,” said Tesco’s UK chief executive Richard Brasher. “So this guarantee that a job will be available provided the placement is completed satisfactorily, should be a major confidence boost for young people.”
Catalogue retailer Argos has also reportedly voiced concerns to the Department for Work and Pensions about the initiative, calling on the government to ensure it operates on a purely voluntary basis.
A Tesco store in Westminster was occupied by protesters over the weekend, prompting work and pensions secretary Chris Grayling to describe the activists as “anti-capitalist extremists”.
