Ever wondered what the life of the serf was like.
You've seen them represented in movies with knights,
all bent over, half dead with starvation and overwork?
Well, look no further.
Serf are always to be found right amongst the riches of
the royal family.
IshiUnot:
Jobseekers 'slept rough' then staffed royal pageant for free
You've seen them represented in movies with knights,
all bent over, half dead with starvation and overwork?
Well, look no further.
Serf are always to be found right amongst the riches of
the royal family.
IshiUnot:
Jobseekers 'slept rough' then staffed royal pageant for free
Calls
for inquiry into claims that jobless spent 14 hours on duty without access to
toilets
Oliver
Wright & Kevin Rawlinson
Calls
were growing last night for an investigation into claims that up to 30
jobseekers were bussed into London to work as unpaid
stewards during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations.
One
woman from Bristol, who did not want to be
named, said she was among 80 people – there were also 50 people on apprentice wages – "left stranded" in
central London after travelling from Bristol overnight.
"We
went under London
Bridge and were told we
would be camping there," she told The Independent. She claimed they were
told they would start work at 5am but by
3.30am they still had not been given somewhere other than the street to sleep.
She said she was then made to change
into her uniform in public before spending 14 hours on duty without access to toilet facilities.
Labour's
former deputy leader Lord Prescott has now written to Home Secretary Theresa
May asking her to investigate claims made against security firm, Close Protection UK (CPUK), which was contracted to
provide up to 30 unpaid stewards for the river pageant on Sunday. CPUK had
bussed in the group of long-term unemployed from Bristol,
Bath and Plymouth.
He
said: "If the allegations are true, it is totally unacceptable that young
unemployed people were... forced to sleep out in the cold overnight before
stewarding a major event with no payment," he wrote. "I am deeply
concerned that a private security firm is not only providing policing on the
cheap but failing to show a duty of care to its staff and threatening to withdraw an
opportunity to work at the Olympics as a means to coerce them to work
unpaid." Reports claimed the workers were brought in as part of the
Government's Work Programme, where the unemployed must take up placements in
order to continue receiving benefits.
