Because people on these contracts have no security. They have no paid holidays, no sick pay, no way of budgeting/planning. If they get no hours, they can't sign on because they are 'employed' Companies are using these contracts to fleece the government, because they know that no matter how low the pay, the government will make up the difference.

As of October 2014, the Govt. changed the rules to disallow the first 7 days of any new JSA/ESA claim. As part of a JSA claim, the claimant is required to spend 30 hours per week searching for work. This must therefore constitute a 'job' in it's very description. When working, an employer would not legally be entitled to disregard your first 7 days work and class them as un-payable work days, so why should the DWP (who, when you sign-on, surely become your 'employer') be allowed to get away with it ?.

The community project will create in excess of 80 jobs in an area that desperately needs them. It will also create an attraction that will attract visitors to a beautiful part of Argyll, further boosting the areas fragile economy. The project will do more for the area than anything the council has so far done in relation to the estate. The communities of Dunoon, Innellan and Toward are united behind this project, unlike the council, who have only put obstacles in the way.

We the undersigned urge the Governors of Sheffield City College to cease their redundancy programme, to reject profiteering and campaign with staff unions for public investment in FE that enables long term planning and the provision of a broader menu of further and adult education.

London is one of the most expensive, and unequal cities in the world. It hosts more billionaires than any other city whilst millions of people are forced to get by on poverty wages. The London Living Wage (LLW) is meant to afford people the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families with the essentials of life and to achieve an adequate level of warmth and shelter, a healthy palatable diet, social integration and avoidance of chronic stress. That is why everyone should be paid at least the LLW. The LLW is set annually by the Living Wage Foundation and calculated by the Greater London Authority. It currently stands at £9.15 per hour. Sotheby’s The cleaners at Sotheby’s, the world’s largest art business, are contracted out and only paid £8.55 p/hour despite Sotheby’s only employing around 1,500 staff members and dishing out around £150 million in wages between them. In fact, the cleaners at Sotheby’s recently received a pay cut from £8.80 p/hour to £8.55 p/hour being told that if they didn’t accept it their jobs would be at risk, despite Sotheby’s spending an extra £13 million on wages compared to last year. As such, the cleaners are really picking up the crumbs. Sotheby’s also uses unpaid interns to help run its business which is both morally reprehensible and legally questionable. Topshop Topshop only pays £6.50 to their cleaners, who are also contracted out. This is despite the fact that the Arcadia Group, the parent group of Topshop, recorded profits of £481m in 2013. Philip Green is also a renowned tax evader, uses sweatshops in Mauritius, and even uses factories in Britain in which workers are paid less than half the legal minimum wage according to a Channel 4 Dispatches. Barbican Centre The cleaners at the Barbican Centre, who are also contracted out, won the LLW in 2013 after a year long campaign. However, the Corporation of London (who owns the Barbican Centre) has refused to increase the LLW to the current rate of £9.15 p/hour. Quotes from cleaners (all wish to remain anonymous) A cleaner from Topshop says: “Earning only £6.50 per hour means I have to work so many hours a day to pay my bills that I barely have time to see my children. It also means I can’t afford to travel by tube and need to spend several hours a day on the bus just to get to and from work.” A cleaner from Sotheby’s says: “Working so hard that my joints hurt, for so little for a company that makes so much money is just not fair. Our wages should be enough to cover the basic costs of living in London, and they simply aren't." A cleaner at the Barbican Centre says: "After having fought so hard to win the Living Wage, to now be told that we won't be paid it is just tragic. We will have to go back once again and fight for the Living Wage.” The cleaners at Topshop, Sotheby's and Barbican Centre are members of the trade union United Voices of the World (UVW).

The mostly Spanish-speaking workers are employed on pitiful wages to clean Saatchis' offices because the work was outsourced to COC. The cleaners have no resources or understanding of the byzantine system they are in, and the costs of mounting an employment claim are far beyond them. Saatchis are an extremely rich corporation and, by outsourcing the work to a firm that has failed because it did not pay the taxes it owed, they retain a huge moral responsibility to make good the damage done by their own policy. They must be shamed into paying up! A typical example of the workers affected is Francisco Javer Horedia, who earns the princely sum of £800 a month from two cleaning jobs: 15 hours a week at Saatchis and 12.5 hours at another firm; he is unable to find full-time work. Could you survive on such wages? More details on the workers and their situation can be found here; http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/07/saatchi-cleaners-fight-unpaid-wages-low-pay

Safety for our children. This is a really dangerous crossing with cars coming from a blind bend too fast and major building works about to start. It is a major crossing point for a lot of people. Since there has been an absence of a lollipop man/lady, it has become difficult to cross the road safely for the children. Also I have seen on several occasions children just running out into the road, sometimes oblivious to oncoming traffic! Luckily the driver wasn't one of the many idiots we get driving around these back roads like its a rally course! Please get a lollipop man/woman to help patrol the road before and after school times. The lollipop person provides a much needed service at a crucial crossing point. There has been a Lollipop lady/man there as far as I can remember back to the early 70's. Not to mention the countless health and safety risks that would be introduced by not having a lollipop lady/man. Without the added safety of a Lollipop lady/man there is a genuine concern that serious injury or a fatality may result. Please sign this as it is really important we don't lose these Lollipop Patrol.

The multinationals and the elites et al are determined that this deal be done in secret and away from the spotlight - and we all know why. Bringing things into the open and under the full glare of publicity makes them justify why it is such a good deal as they claim (we all know it isn't) and it is the one thing that will kill this thing for good. That is why doing something like this is the one thing they hate and fear more than anything else - and why it is the best tactic. a few hundred signatures to start should do it, then more if possible. PLEASE make this a major 38 degrees sponsored campaign - not just one from me - co-opt/steal this idea and use it! publicity like this will kill TTIP for good - ALL parts of it.

The St Agnes post office has recently closed, our bus service is being significantly reduced and now Barclays (the only bank and cash machine in the village) is closing. This is a vital resource for the community and its closing will have devastating social and economic impacts on the village. We have a large elderly population in the village, many of whom don’t use credit / visa cards. We are blessed to have some great independent shops in the village - a baker, news agent, small cafes, two green grocers and two butchers. Some of whom accept cards, some don't. With no cash machine in the village how will people use these great independent shops. Where will the young people get their bus fare each morning to get to college? Yes, there are shops that offers cash back, but you have to spend £ 5 to get cash back . It's hardly fair that you have to spend your money, to get your money. Like many Cornish villages, tourism is our biggest business now the tourists won’t be able to get any cash to spend when they are here. Great. Less services for residents and tourists - a social and economic disaster for us.

For the last 5 years, pathology services at Guy's and St Thomas and King's College Hospital's have been managed by Viapath, a for-profit company formed between SERCO and the two hospital Trusts. Since the takeover by Viapath, the service has been plagued by problems; chronic understaffing, inability to recruit and retain, reduced training, closure of vital services and massive financial losses. Now the remaining NHS staff in the service face being transferred out of the NHS on the 1st January 2015. We oppose the transfer of staff and believe that to guarantee a quality and safe service for patients, the staff should remain part of the NHS, and all pathology services should be brought back into the NHS. The alternative is a the running down of a vital service for patients, and the loss of highly skilled and experienced staff. SERCO is a company notorious for poor services, bad employment practices and is being investigated for defrauding the government on other outsourcing contracts. Their involvement in the NHS can only jeopardise patient safety and damage the hospital’s reputation.

i have been a carer since 1993 with very little recognition or reward is time for this to change as the 6.5 million carers save the government 120 billion per year this Government will have saved 600 billion by the election by denying carers what all other workers have. its time that changed for good

We need to know the correct statistics for unemployment, so that the people of the UK know the correct amount of people who truly are unemployed!