STUC: Brassica Debacle Shows Employability Scheme Businesses Use Public Sector To 'launder' Unfair Work

23rd January 2019

This item from the Common Space web site will give anyone using employability scheme cause to think hard how they are used.

Workers denied pay they say is still owed to them after the collapse of the Dundee business

Workers, many of whom were hired through a Council employability scheme, claim they are owed almost £8000 in unpaid wages and other payments from Brassica, which went into liquidation in 2018

One of Brassica's owners, Dr Rami Sarraf, is now opening a new venture on the same site called Brassica Ecosse.

Dundee City Council licensing board voted to transfer the license to the new Brassica outfit despite angry protests from Union activists

The STUC said the case was "an excellent example of the public sector funding, or at least legitimising, the integration of a new pliable generation into the precarious conditions of hospitality and service work".

THE Scottish Trade Union Congress has warned that employability schemes are allowing private firms to "launder their unfair working practices" through the public sector.

The warning comes amid an escalating row between former workers of the Brassica restaurant in Dundee, which went into liquidation in 2018, and one of its former owners, Dr Rami Sarraf, who is now opening a new venture on the same site through a new company, Brassica Ecosse.

Workers claim they are owed at least £7936 in unpaid wages from the collapse. Many of them were hired through a Dundee City Council (DCC) employability scheme, designed to match unemployed people with businesses seeking workers.

Last week (Thursday 17 January) DCC's licensing board voted to transfer Brassica's restaurant licence to the new Brassica Ecosse outfit. The decision was met by angry protests from Union activists, campaigning for the payment of money owed to the workers, forcibly ejected, after being told the premises were "private property".

See the full article at -

https://www.commonspace.scot/articles/13759/stuc-brassica-debacle-shows-employability-scheme-businesses-use-public-sector-launder