Revenge of the Angry Graduate Slave

I wrote an article a while ago, about how little use the Jobcentre has been in actually helping me back to work. At the time, I thought that a "Personal Advisor" asking me to remove my degree from my CV would be an isolated, if not rare event. From the response to my article, I gather that in fact removing qualifications from CVs is a standard tactic at the Jobcentre. Who signed off on that?
Why is the Jobcentre trying to dumb us down, and funnel us all into minimum wage jobs? What happened to all the other jobs? What happened to the Sciences, to the Arts, to Music? Why are they telling us to think small? Why can't we have great thoughts, and have great ideas? This is supposed to be Great Britain!

What message is the Government trying to give us here? You are telling us that our qualifications are of no use, of no relevance in Britain in 2012. You're telling us that the only thing that employers want is the willingness to stoop lower than the next guy.

Forget work experience, what do you think our life experience is going to be? What are we going to do about our debts? What was the point of all that study and hard work?

You are annoying skilled people who have been singled out for their intelligence and perseverance. This is very dangerous. When you took EMA off the kids, and tripled the Uni fees, they tried to burn down the Conservative Party H.Q.

There are always unforeseen consequences.

People keep asking me "Why are you even going to the Jobcentre? It's not really designed for people  with degrees." I responded somewhat sarcastically with "Point me to the Jobcentre for graduates, and I'll go there!" My old Dad then informed me that there was once such a thing. It got cut.

Another thing people ask is "Where do you get this sense of entitlement from? You get paid your JSA. I had to abandon my hopes and dreams and aim low, why shouldn't you?" Putting aside my previous argument about bullying and transference, I'd like to respond a little more to the point.

If I accept that the social security net is a good thing, then I am entitled to my JSA, in order to stay out of poverty. And aside from that, I am being forced to work for no wage. I am entitled to my Human Rights, which according to Article 4 of the Human Rights Act as stated on legislation.gov.uk¹ declares;

1. No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.
2. No one shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.

If I accept the Capitalist philosophy of "something for something", and assume that my JSA is a wage, then I am entitled to the National Minimum Wage, which £1.80 an hour (£54 divided by 30hrs) falls far short of.

The Government is either breaching my Human Rights, or my Right to a Fair Wage. Both, I thought, were highly illegal. If you want people to experience the true world of work, as you say you do, should they not then also have the experience of being paid the National Minimum Wage? Why do we have to work for nothing, but people with the right business connections and the right friends in high places can write themselves cheques for millions of pounds of the taxpayer's money? What do you think that tells us about the British Work Ethic at the top? Of what we should aspire to?

According to workingrights.co.uk², in response to the question "Can an employer pay less than the minimum wage if they pay a bonus?" The answer was "Unfortunately, yes."  Why unfortunately? If you can dock wages due to bonuses, until it falls beneath the minimum wage, then why don't we take banker's bonuses off their salaries? I'm sure the public won't find them as objectionable then. After all, we get our JSA docked penny for penny if we find any ways of making money.

It's almost as if there's one set of laws for the bottom layer of society, and another set of laws for the top. But if you look a little more closely, you realise that the devil is in the details. The National Minimum Wage is not as absolute and all-encompassing as it sounds. According to direct.gov³ "Most workers are entitled to the National Minimum Wage." Most. Not all. According to the booklet about the minimum wage, available from the Citizens Advice Bureau, and online from adviceguide.org.uk⁴, there are exceptions to the National Minimum Wage. These are, among others;

• Workers under the age of 16.
•  Au-pairs and nannies if they are living with a family and not paying for accommodation or meals.
• Some trainees on government schemes.

So we allow child slave labour, lots of cheeky chimney-sweeps with lung cancer. We allow slavery in the home, as long as they're a Family Pet Slave, given only bed and board. Like the dog. And finally the  piece de resistance, Government Slavery. There it is in black and white, you don't need to pay people if they're on a Government Scheme. Servus publicus. Ancient Rome is reborn, in all its corrupt and decedent glory. Don't worry, Grey Men in Suits, you don't need catchy rhyming insults. Government Slavery is A-OK.

You could almost understand all this if we were a nation besieged by war, like in the times of Winston Churchill. But we're not. All I see is class warfare.

¹http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/42/schedule/1/part/I/chapter/3

²http://www.workingrights.co.uk/can-employer-pay-less-than-minimum-wage.html

³http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Understandingyourworkstatus/Migrantworkers/DG_10027923

⁴http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/e_national_minimum_wage.pdf