Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

SOME of Britain’s biggest firms have drafted in thousands of jobless youngsters to work for free during their Christmas rush.

The Sunday Mail can reveal a massive recruitment drive for unpaid labour under a Government-based scheme over the festive season.

High street names such as Tesco, Argos and Superdrug have taken on young people who work for free for six weeks while claiming their benefits.

And critics fear staff at Jobcentres are under pressure to put more people into the programmes – when they could have been given jobs – to meet strict Government targets.

Under Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s back-to-work programme, young people do up to 30 hours’ unpaid work a week. Placements can last up to eight weeks and they only receive travel expenses in addition to their £53-a-week jobseekers’ allowance.

The scheme is voluntary but participants lose their benefits if they drop out.

Between January last year and May this year, almost 65,000 jobseekers carried out unpaid work experience, including 5250 in Scotland.

In May, 5110 people across Britain took part in the scheme, compared with 3150 in December last year.

A year on, the number of unpaid work experience placements is expected to treble.

A civil service source said: “There is no target to get people in work but there is a target of 100,000 to put people into work experience.

“Employers have been told, “Don’t advertise jobs as vacancies. Let Jobcentre Plus supply you people on work experience.’ The morale among those who take part is very low.

“They don’t earn any extra money and weeks later, they are back signing on with no real improvement in their job prospects.

“They’re being taken advantage of by both the employers and the Government. You don’t need six weeks’ unpaid work experience to work on a checkout.”

Jack Ferguson, the union Unite’s Scotland community co-ordinator, said: “It is all the more cruel that people who have been unemployed all year and looking forward to Christmas when there is more work are going to be denied it because people are available to work for free.

“The companies who would have employed these people will be rubbing their hands. They don’t care about the millions of unemployed at Christmas. All they care about is maximising their profits.”

Yesterday, campaigners protested outside stores in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee.

The Crutch Collective, campaigning against benefits cuts, picketed Superdrug in Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street. The chain have recruited around 500 people who have done unpaid work experience and gone on to paid jobs.

A Superdrug spokeswoman said yesterday: “Superdrug does not take part in any mandatory work schemes. We support initiatives to help get people back into the work place.

“Work experience schemes are an important part of our investing time and support to develop skills in local communities and, if a placement works well and vacancies arise, we look to take them on permanently. ”

Tesco said they had set a target of recruiting 3000 people on work experience.

A Tesco spokesman said: “We are committed to delivering 3000 work experience placements and to giving the young people who undertake work experience with us a choice.

“We offer them the option to be paid by Tesco for the four weeks, or to remain on their benefit scheme, with the guarantee that a permanent role will be available if the placement goes well on either option.”

Argos said they were hiring 12,000 people over Christmas and that a “few hundred” had done unpaid work experience. A spokeswoman insisted they worked alongside paid colleagues, rather than replacing them.

A Poundland spokeswoman said: “Over 1000 people have carried out voluntary work experience in our stores. Out of this number, an encouraging 25 per cent have left their work experience early because they received a job offer, and a further 10 per cent have gone onto employment with Poundland.”

Glasgow nightclub Mansion House took on 17 unemployed people for six weeks, with 14 offered jobs at the end of the period.

Mansion House general manager Tim Drake said: “We took on 17 individuals for six weeks’ work experience as part of the sector-based work academy initiative.

“They were given the opportunity to train in bar work, cheffing and other related skills. At the end of their six weeks with us, we were pleased to offer permanent roles to 14 of them, who are now employees of Mansion House.”

A DWP spokeswoman said: “We are very clear that work experience does not replace paid-for jobs but provides people with valuable experience to get a job.

“It’s nonsense to suggest that employers are being discouraged from providing real jobs and Jobcentre Plus takes around 10,000 new vacancies a day for paid jobs.”