How to File Complaints regarding Employment Services or Staffing Agencies
I recently, some months ago now, attended a compulsory 'back to work programme' for the long term unemployed. It was run chaotically by several experienced staff, all of which had their own individual agendas.
One minute you were being told to do the 'looking for work yourself' because they were highly understaffed, and the next, instructed to follow up on jobs that did not appeal to you or had no prospects that would encourage you to not want to stay in the job for long. I was unimpressed by the kind of job opportunities available to me, largely because I had a huge variety of skills including a university education.
The support from staff was minimal and often unhelpful and/or demoralizing to people's own intelligence and ability. I personally witnessed staff treating their students with complete disrespect when they were taking initiative to search for employment off their own backs, using their own inner resources.
The scheme administrators were not involved in the running of the programme and were in the background so no one actually knew who they were or what their roles were. The only introduction I had was when I filed an official complaint against a particular memeber of staff who had been heard gossiping outrageously about me after leaving and securing a fairly reasonable job. This was reported to me by another member of staff who had taken me out for a drink and told me that she herself was going into the phone-sex industry.
I had seen and heard enough and had written a letter of complaint to the job center plus team where I signed on every week. I was instructed by them to then write to the most influential head of benefits personnel. It took around three weeks before I was given a response by post and then was instructed by head of personnel that my letter of complaint had been passed over to the actual agency that runs the whole 'back to work' scheme.
I didn't understand why I hadn't gone to them first myself when the chair of the scheme was not happy about the way I had informed the job center plus, who are always receiving negative feedback from other students who attend the programme. It felt like there were two pockets here and you had to ask in which one you were to put your hand!.
Anyway, my complaint was at least understood and unsurprisingly common in nature to those made by other survivors. I didn't like the way I felt interviewed over the telephone by the chair and the way I was made to feel that this is just another person having a moan at a failing system. Nor did I like the way I was told that 'children are children' by a member of staff trying to get me to see another angle on the whole thing.
Rotten behavior is meant to be constructive. I fail to agree and am angered still by the way staff really do undermine those who they perceive as easy targets who are in fact, in a very vulnerable situation with little power to change the way things are run. The helpless then become even more so and so it is not surprising that there is as much unemployment out there as the government are always raising the issue.
There is not real clear cut way to file a complaint without it going through one stream, if only to get to another, unless you go straight to the top if you know who is running things. My way was experimental but did get me the right ears even though they weren't listening. Making something public is often a great way of getting everyone sitting up and listening if your argument is to have a dramatic affect.
Make the issue an issue if it is not being taken seriously and dare to go that extra mile if there are not clear cut ways of airing grievances. I would recommend getting knowledgeable about who runs what and what staff come from where. All of the details that seem irrelevant are highly important because there is a direct link between one body and another, just like a map that needs only to be read before it can be understood.
