Heartbreaking- the worst corporation you know makes a good point.
DubiousBusinessp on
“Blame us instead for the thousands of businesses we’ve killed without paying the taxes they would.”
Exotic_Jicama1984 on
Blame Amazon and other companies for employing migrant workers who get bussed in daily to their warehouses.
And blame the government for allowing this practice to go on.
davinist on
“Why aren’t we being sent free work experience labour?”
ClockOwn6363 on
If they they can’t find young people with the skills they need, why don’t they start giving them the work experience in house?
How can they expect to recruit young people with experience when they’ve not had the chance to work… 🤦♂️
Dayzed-n-Confuzed on
Stop blaming old people for being old. We are all fighting the fight that’s in front of us
Weak-Fly-6540 on
He called for work experience to be mandatory for over 16s. “It’s not a motivation problem, it’s a system problem, and that requires a system response.”
That’s fine in principle, but we know how companies will exploit it. A decade or so ago, there was the controversial workfare scheme that saw private companies taking on the unemployed but not actually paying them – they would work the same hours for their JSA. What happened? Some major companies instead fired staff because it was cheaper to tap into this scheme.
What we need is to give young people paid work, not companies exploiting “work experience” as an excuse not to train those they employ, instead as a first step. Increase the standards of living, make sure older generations have the income they need not to work beyond retirement age, thus broadening the labour market.
Even a basic universal income would do much to help too.
TheWorldIsGoingMad on
I don’t think it is their fault, in the main anyway.
One of the biggest factors is the government idealistically (but naïvely) forcing employers to pay young people more than they think they’re worth. If any employer had two people equally suitable going for a job, one was 18 and one 28 (or 38 or what ever) and they had to pay them more or less the same 99 out of 100 would employ the older candidate :
Even the government, albeit belatedly, realise this :
The point of blaming young people is so you can ignore the problem.
If you assign blame then you abdicate all responsibility to even think about it.
JackStrawWitchita on
Young people don’t tend to vote, so, as a demographic, politicians tend to ignore them.
WinHour4300 on
If they can’t hire enough trained staff they need to expand their training programmes. Not blame the government and expect them to force 16 year olds, basically adults, to work for free to build “experience”.
L43 on
Blame those little guys who aren’t surrendering their paltry market share to us!! Just a little more slice of the pie and I promise we’ll pay some tax!
Rootayable on
Yeah, it’s a solid point, I agree.
It’s very easy to see refusal to work as laziness but honestly they’ve got a lot against them.
dr-broodles on
Cheap words… having his companies pay their fair share of tax would be more appreciated than lip service to a generation that will suffer due to billionaires like him.
No more billionaires
SuperblackHunter on
Too many people want to have their cake and eat it in this country which has led to pretty high taxes for people and businesses with little to give due to the cost of the entire umbrella of welfare
People who obsess over taxing the rich and businesses are part of this issue, heck we can’t even slightly lower VAT to even Europes level without a major budget issue due to how much we spend
Quick-Albatross-9204 on
>He called for work experience to be mandatory for over 16s
absolutely nothing to do with profit.
DrIvoPingasnik on
That’s fucking rich coming from a company that treats workers like slaves, murdered countless of local businesses, and pays pennies in taxes.
“Government should do something :)” yes, but how about clean up your own backyard before criticising the dirty streets?
“Work experience for over 16 should be mandatory :)” oh feck off, you just wants more slaves earlier in their lives. Let teenagers enjoy their youth before throwing them into factories.
He ought to shut up.
Clbull on
> Nearly a million young Britons are not in education, employment or training, yet Boumphrey says Amazon struggles to recruit workers with the skills it needs.
> He called for work experience to be mandatory for over 16s. “It’s not a motivation problem, it’s a system problem, and that requires a system response.”
Oh… I get it now. They want to use teenagers as free labour.
ByEthanFox on
Before anyone praises him, he’s asking for unpaid work experience to be mandatory for teenagers.
Basically – he doesn’t want to hire inexperienced people and train them while paying them, which, let’s all be clear, **as a business, he has a responsibility to society to do.**
He wants to be able to employ teenagers unpaid instead.
School was *never* meant to be a substitute for in-work training, and it’s not the taxpayer’s job to create a factory line of drones for his “fulfilment centres”.
navinjohnsonn on
Wait till he starts talking about AI replacing jobs like his boss.
20 Comments
Heartbreaking- the worst corporation you know makes a good point.
“Blame us instead for the thousands of businesses we’ve killed without paying the taxes they would.”
Blame Amazon and other companies for employing migrant workers who get bussed in daily to their warehouses.
And blame the government for allowing this practice to go on.
“Why aren’t we being sent free work experience labour?”
If they they can’t find young people with the skills they need, why don’t they start giving them the work experience in house?
How can they expect to recruit young people with experience when they’ve not had the chance to work… 🤦♂️
Stop blaming old people for being old. We are all fighting the fight that’s in front of us
He called for work experience to be mandatory for over 16s. “It’s not a motivation problem, it’s a system problem, and that requires a system response.”
That’s fine in principle, but we know how companies will exploit it. A decade or so ago, there was the controversial workfare scheme that saw private companies taking on the unemployed but not actually paying them – they would work the same hours for their JSA. What happened? Some major companies instead fired staff because it was cheaper to tap into this scheme.
Amazon has benefited from it [https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/irj.12232](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/irj.12232)
Poundland infamously did [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24742499](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24742499)
What we need is to give young people paid work, not companies exploiting “work experience” as an excuse not to train those they employ, instead as a first step. Increase the standards of living, make sure older generations have the income they need not to work beyond retirement age, thus broadening the labour market.
Even a basic universal income would do much to help too.
I don’t think it is their fault, in the main anyway.
One of the biggest factors is the government idealistically (but naïvely) forcing employers to pay young people more than they think they’re worth. If any employer had two people equally suitable going for a job, one was 18 and one 28 (or 38 or what ever) and they had to pay them more or less the same 99 out of 100 would employ the older candidate :
Even the government, albeit belatedly, realise this :
[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/feb/18/ministers-may-slow-youth-minimum-wage-rise-uk-unemployment-fears](https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/feb/18/ministers-may-slow-youth-minimum-wage-rise-uk-unemployment-fears)
The point of blaming young people is so you can ignore the problem.
If you assign blame then you abdicate all responsibility to even think about it.
Young people don’t tend to vote, so, as a demographic, politicians tend to ignore them.
If they can’t hire enough trained staff they need to expand their training programmes. Not blame the government and expect them to force 16 year olds, basically adults, to work for free to build “experience”.
Blame those little guys who aren’t surrendering their paltry market share to us!! Just a little more slice of the pie and I promise we’ll pay some tax!
Yeah, it’s a solid point, I agree.
It’s very easy to see refusal to work as laziness but honestly they’ve got a lot against them.
Cheap words… having his companies pay their fair share of tax would be more appreciated than lip service to a generation that will suffer due to billionaires like him.
No more billionaires
Too many people want to have their cake and eat it in this country which has led to pretty high taxes for people and businesses with little to give due to the cost of the entire umbrella of welfare
People who obsess over taxing the rich and businesses are part of this issue, heck we can’t even slightly lower VAT to even Europes level without a major budget issue due to how much we spend
>He called for work experience to be mandatory for over 16s
absolutely nothing to do with profit.
That’s fucking rich coming from a company that treats workers like slaves, murdered countless of local businesses, and pays pennies in taxes.
“Government should do something :)” yes, but how about clean up your own backyard before criticising the dirty streets?
“Work experience for over 16 should be mandatory :)” oh feck off, you just wants more slaves earlier in their lives. Let teenagers enjoy their youth before throwing them into factories.
He ought to shut up.
> Nearly a million young Britons are not in education, employment or training, yet Boumphrey says Amazon struggles to recruit workers with the skills it needs.
Probably because nobody aspires to work in minimum wage warehouse or courier jobs [where workers are expected to piss in bottles because toilet breaks are seen as a sackable offence.](https://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/25480451.amazon-drivers-hit-working-conditions-ipswich/)
> He called for work experience to be mandatory for over 16s. “It’s not a motivation problem, it’s a system problem, and that requires a system response.”
Oh… I get it now. They want to use teenagers as free labour.
Before anyone praises him, he’s asking for unpaid work experience to be mandatory for teenagers.
Basically – he doesn’t want to hire inexperienced people and train them while paying them, which, let’s all be clear, **as a business, he has a responsibility to society to do.**
He wants to be able to employ teenagers unpaid instead.
School was *never* meant to be a substitute for in-work training, and it’s not the taxpayer’s job to create a factory line of drones for his “fulfilment centres”.
Wait till he starts talking about AI replacing jobs like his boss.