In 2012, the Postal Executive endorsed an agreement reached with Royal Mail dealing with work experience.dvbuk55 wrote:Glad of the new interest because it gives us a chance to see if anyone was actually employed on the workfare scheme or if it died the death quietly. Did anyone end up with a a permanent job as it arose?
The subject matter became emotive due to concerns that the Royal Mail Work Experience Programme replicated the Government’s Workfare Scheme, which is opposed by the CWU and the TUC. The matter was subsequently debated at Annual Conference where it was recognised the scheme negotiated by the Union was not Workfare and the CWU position was also endorsed by the TUC.
During deployment it emerged that the number anticipated by Royal Mail was far lower than had been expected and it transpired that only 29 participants took part in the scheme.
The Union is in the process of evaluating the scheme and at the time of writing this report Royal Mail have advised us that there are no plans to reopen the scheme. Whilst the final evaluation is not complete we are advised that 14 out of 29 were given a least fixed term contract.