Tomorrow’s People claims there has been ‘misinformation’ surrounding reports of poor conditions of its unpaid clients working at the Diamond Jubilee, and is speaking to each volunteer to verify what happened.
On Monday night, the Guardian reported that a group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were bussed into London on Saturday evening to work as unpaid stewards during the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and told to sleep under London Bridge before working on the river pageant.
The jobseekers involved were clients of Tomorrow’s People, and were referred to the private security firm Close Protection UK for what the charity describes as ‘pre-employment training’.
In a statement on its website, Abi Levitt, Tomorrow's People director of development, said the charity was reviewing its relationship with Close Protection UK following negative press reports.
“What happened to our clients on their arrival in London was totally unacceptable and is contrary to the Tomorrow’s People way of operating. We are very concerned at Close Protection UK’s lack of care for our clients and lack of attention to their safety and wellbeing. We are urgently reviewing our involvement with Close Protection UK,” she writes.
But Levitt told civilsociety.co.uk: "There's lots of misinformation out there."
The charity is now speaking to each client involved to verify their experience and satisfy itself that the only issue was the wait in London for two hours with no-one to meet them.
“This was unacceptable. But we are checking that everything else ran as we would expect.”
In a radio interview with the BBC, Molly Prince, managing director of Close Protection UK, said the only issue was a “logistical error” which saw a coach of Tomorrow’s People’s clients arrive at London Bridge two hours earlier than expected.
“They should have been left on the coach till the director arrived,” said Prince.
When questioned on poor conditions, including the fact that the mixed gender group were forced to change into clothing equipment provided on the streets, Prince said the company had intended them to change on the coach. “It’s the nature of event work, it's not always ideal,” she admitted.
Prince added that the whole situation had been exaggerated: “There were two or three complaints out of 220 people,” she said.
“It was badly handled in the moring and we have apologised. We are not in the business of exploiting free labour.”
But the story has ignited strong public anger, Mollie Prince has been trending on Twitter today, and the former deputy prime minister John Prescott has demanded that the Home Secretary Theresa May open an inquiry into the matter.
'If the allegations are true, it is totally unacceptable that young unemployed people were bussed in to London from Bristol, Bath and Plymouth and forced to sleep out in the cold overnight before stewarding a major event with no payment,' he said in a letter to the Home Secretary.
'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.'
Tomorrow’s People has said the collaboration with Close Protection UK means that some, if not all, of those participating in the Jubilee work will be selected for a paid contract at the London Olympics.
