Workfare Demonstration Outside WH Smith in Bath City Centre

Anti-workfare demonstration outside WH Smith in Bath city centre (Standing Stone)

On Saturday 7 July 2012, an anti-workfare demonstration took place outside WH Smith in Union Street, Bath. Members of BARF, Bath Against Cuts and Occupy Bath set up outside the shop at 11.30am with a large "Workfare is Slavery" banner and handed out leaflets and engaged with passers by. Despite continuous rain, the demonstration went on until 13.00 and hundreds of leaflets were handed out. No staff members from WH Smith approached the demonstration and the response from the public was overwhelmingly positive.

Originally, the demonstration was planned to target Holland and Barrett, however the day before the demonstration they announced that they were leaving the workfare scheme. More on Holland and Barrett here, and a previous workfare article on Standing Stone's Blog can be found here.

Next Saturday is the "We Are Bristol" march against the EDL - stay tuned for updates.

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Holland and Barrett to pull out of Workfare

A planned week of action against the controversial workfare scheme starting from tomorrow has scored its first success, before the week has even begun.

Holland and Barrett, the target of many of tomorrow's pickets and protests has just announced that they will no longer be partaking in the workfare scheme. The following statement has was posted on their facebook page late last night:

"At Holland & Barrett, we take our responsibilities as a retailer and employer very seriously, and any possible compromise to the safety of our staff and customers from opponents of our work experience scheme is treated with great importance.

This factor, together with the planned introduction of a new full time, salaried apprentice scheme, means that the 60 people currently undertaking the work experience scheme will be the last to complete the eight week placement. After this time Holland & Barrett will not participate further in that scheme"

It appears that the threat of action has forced them to reconsider their involvement with workfare. However, many more corporations are still on board with the scheme, including Poundland, Argos, Tesco, Asda and Superdrug. Pizza Hut are currently reviewing their involvement with the scheme.

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