Ad for job with no pay a mistake says Tesco

The job was posted on the Jobcentre Plus website and offered only expenses and Jobseekers’ Allowance for permanent night shift work at a store in East Anglia.

The advert caused a storm on Twitter and Facebook, as Britain’s largest supermarket chain was bombarded by critics furious that the company was seeking to exploit people looking for work.

By this afternoon the topic was trending on Twitter. At first Tesco said the job was part of a government-backed scheme which offered a guaranteed job interview at the end of the placement.

But after having to delete a deluge of angry postings on its facebook page, the company changed its poisiton saying the advert had been an “IT mistake” made by Jobcentre Plus.

“It is an advert for work experience with a guaranteed job interview at the end of it as part of a government-led work experience scheme,” the company said.

“We take our responsibility as Britain’s biggest private sector employer seriously. This includes giving young people valuable experience of the workplace, and 300 young people have so far gone on to get permanent employment with us as a result of work experience in recent months, but not as a replacement or substitute for our permanent staff.”

“In general, Tesco staff receive a higher level of basic pay than any other supermarket, without exception.”

A spokesman for the Department of Work and Pensions said: “The details in the advert were wrong. The advert was actually for a guaranteed job interview as part of the Government’s “sector-based work academies” initiative, a scheme which gives unemployed people valuable help to improve their chances of finding work.”

Tesco said roughly 1400 people had been given work experience placements in its stores in recent months and 300 had got jobs – a success rate of 21%.

But critics point out that a young person receiving £53.45 in JSA who did 30 hours of work experience would be working for £1.78 an hour. The minimum wage for those over 21 is currently £6.08 an hour.

The row comes as new government figures released on Wednesday showed 34,200 people were signed up for work experience schemes between January and November last year. The vast majority of those were between 18 and 24. They are expected to work from 2 to 8 weeks, or face losing their benefits.

The government has trumpeted the scheme, saying it gives young people the skills to get a permanent job. But critics said large companies like Tesco were using the programme for cheap labour, and were forcing the unemployed to work for nothing.

That criticism has led some large companies to pull out of the scheme. Both Sainsbury’s and Waterstones say they are no longer taking on staff under the programme. Waterstones said they did not want to “encourage work for no pay”.

However plenty of other high street companies remain involved. Boots, Asda, Primark and Argos all take part, as do Top Shop and Burton, run by the billionaire Philip Green.

Usdaw, the union which represents retail workers, said it was not opposed to work experience but it should be voluntary, and those who were offered places should be paid the minimum wage. The TUC has called on companies to pull out, and said the government’s programme was encouraging unpaid work and not actually creating jobs.