Sir, – Every time I read an Irish newspaper I get a sense of déjà vu. Now we are being told that 3,000 people will be forced to work for their dole, with an extra €20 thrown in for their bus fare. They tried this scheme in the 1980s. I remember the shocked look on the Anco (as it was then) interviewer’s face when I told the person I wasn’t interested in its “work experience”, having spent one year as a “temporary clerical trainee” in the civil service. It was just a cheap labour scheme. I went to London and got some real work experience.
Then as now we have gutless, toothless trade unions giving the okay to these cheap labour schemes. Yes, nobody will be displaced, but people will end up doing real work for no money, undercutting working conditions. With trade unions like those, is it any wonder they country is in the state it is. What ever happened to them standing up for workers rights? They should instruct their members to have nothing to do with it. That means not dealing with those on “work experience”. – Yours, etc,
GEARÓID Ó LOINGSIGH,
Calle 12D,
Bogotá, Colombia.