A Tesco job advert offering 'JSA plus expenses' reveals the sinister reality of government work experience schemes.So now we know. Back in August last year, I wrote a www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/23/volunteered-wor focusing on the increasing noise about people being forced to work inreturn for their jobseeker's allowance – an idea whose roots extend wellinto Labour's time in government. It focused on two things: so-calledmandatory work activity (MWA), whereby people are forced – via thethreat of their jobseeker's allowance being suspended – to put in 30hours a week doing work "of benefit to the community"; and other "workexperience" schemes, in which people do up to eight weeks of unpaidlabour, with one proviso: they can refuse to take part or pull outduring the first seven days, but thereafter the work becomes compulsory,under pain of their benefit being withdrawn.Yesterday, my colleague Shiv Malik www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb/15/thousands-unemployed- in the scheme between May and November last year; 24,010 had done MWA,while 34,200 had participated in the second kind of work experience. Thekey revelation, though, was that in the last month for which there werefigures, MWA numbers were outstripping those for non-compulsory(ish)work experience by 8,100 to 6,600. In other words, MWA seems to bemushrooming, along with its hardline sanctions regime: the first timeyou refuse to take part, you lose your benefit for 13 weeks; the second,for six months. Subject to the passing of the current welfare reformbill, rejecting MWA for a third time will mean no benefit for threeyears – and, one assumes, destitution.At which point, it's worthpausing to reflect on what all this actually entails.Thanks toreferrals by both jobcentres and private-sector Work Programmeproviders, it's about people effectively working for nothing, not onlyin charities and the public sector, but in huge retail chains. Thanks tothe legal action launched by www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/15/unemployed-youn we all know about Poundland. Asda, Boots, Argos and TK Maxx, and theArcadia group (including Topshop and Burton) are also involved. Hatsoff, perhaps, to Sainsbury's and Waterstones for announcing that theyhave ended their involvement with this kind of work experience, but ifyou want an indication that workfare may be turning into an immovablepart of the private-sector economy, consider last night and today'sblizzard of outrage about jobcentreplus.jobhits.co.uk/TESCO-NIGHT-SHIFT-id-BSD-27442 placed on the Jobcentre Plus website. It's for nightshift workers inEast Anglia, who will be paid "JSA plus expenses". In response, Tesco'sFacebook page has been transformed into a glorious example of an onlinedemo, brimming with anger. "I'll be boycotting your stores withimmediate effect until you stop this exploitation – I will also beurging all my friends and family and contacts to do the same," goes onepost. "No more Tesco for me until you withdraw from this governmentworkfare scheme … It is compulsory forced labour," says another.Thecompany are trying to keep a lid on it all, with little success: "Youcan delete as much as you like but this will now go viral," offers oneposter.On Twitter, Shiv Malik revealed www.guardian.co.uk/news/2012/feb/16/newsdesk-live-thursday-1 for similar roles at Tesco, and Tesco's explanation shifted. www.leftfootforward.org/2012/02/youth-unemployment-job-centr their initial line was that they "are taking part in a government-ledwork experience scheme to help young people" which "has already led to300 permanent jobs". They then put the advert down to "an error made byJobcentre Plus" and claimed that it should have been "for workexperience with a guaranteed interview at the end". As far as I cantell, they still want to employ nightshift workers for nothing.Whatever the answer, the crucial point is that unpaid work – bad enough when itapplied to supposed "interns", but grim beyond belief when used on theunemployed – is now being built into what some people call The NewNormal. Given the thousands involved, it clearly represents a boon tothe kind of multinational giants whose profit margins must be creepingupwards thanks to the plentiful supply of people – and please, all youfree-marketeers, read this bit slowly – effectively paid a pittance towork for them by the taxpayer. Note also the way that even more sinisteraspects of all this are pointed up by the breakdown of people who'vedone work experience, as opposed to MWA: 13% of work experience"participants" are from ethnic minorities, but when hardened compulsionis used via MWA, that number rises to 24%.Last year, a Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson told me the "community benefit"meant that MWA would be kept out of the private sector – but on theground, that doesn't seem to be working, at all. Now the DWP claim onlythat they "expect that every placement will offer people the opportunityto gain fundamental work disciplines, as well as being of benefit tolocal communities". Also, if you still think that all this denotes onlyshort-term arrangements that aren't an offence to public morals andshouldn't be too onerous for anyone, consider one of the more overlookedaspects of current welfare-to-work practice: something called the www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wp-cap-1.pdf under which people are mandated to work for their benefit for up to 26weeks. That's six months, to you and me. Such outrages continue to berolled out at speed; the horror is only compounded by how littleattention mainstream politics continues to give them.