'Unpaid' jobless Jubilee stewards

The head of the TUC union Brendan Barber has said that the alleged treatment of unpaid jobseekers working as stewards at the Diamond Jubilee highlights the "damage" that can be done to unemployed people desperate to get back into work.

He warned that it was not an isolated incident, as a Downing Street spokeswoman claimed earlier.

The Liberal Democrat MP Stephen Williams has said he is urging the Work and Pensions Secretary and Employment Minister to investigate the allegations made against Close Security UK.

He said that he supports the Government's Work Programme, which is designed to provide unpaid training and experience for the long-term unemployed. But he said that the allegations, if true, undermine public confidence in the programme.

He said: "It does look in this particular case that a contractor working with the Work Programme has treated people under their care in an appalling way.

"Just because somebody is volunteering, it doesn't mean you can treat them badly."

Tomorrow's People, the national employment charity who supplied security staff to private security firm Close Protection UK over the Jubilee weekend, say they are going to launch an investigation into allegations staff were forced to sleep under London Bridge.

The charity explained their relationship with the security firm, and stressed that no one was "obliged" to take part.

Molly Prince, managing director of Close Protection UK, says the situation has been "exaggerated".

Speaking on Radio 4's Today, she said the stewards had been left under London Bridge after the bus arrived there two hours earlier than scheduled.

Ms Prince also insisted there was "dry sheltered accommodation" provided at the campsite and that the "logistical mistakes" from the weekend would be "learnt from in readiness for the Olympics".

The national employment charity, Tomorrow's People, has said it is reviewing its involvement with Close Protection after revelations of the security firm's treatment of unpaid jobseekers that were stewards at the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.

Close Protection UK (CPUK), the security firm accused of using unpaid jobseekers to police the Jubilee celebrations, has contracts to provide security at the Olympics.

A spokesman for CPUK has claimed that the work experience was given to jobseekers as a trial before receiving paid work during the Olympics.

The former deputy prime minister John Prescott has called for a review of the company's Olympic contract, saying: "It would be completely inappropriate for a company that appears to have such a blatant disregard for the care of its workers to be policing such a prestigious event."

These are some of the allegations that two jobseekers have made against the security firm Close Protection UK (CPUK). Both were working as stewards for the firm at the Jubilee River Pageant on a work experience basis.

• Asked to spend Sunday night under London Bridge
• Made to change into security gear in public because of lack of changing facilities
• Given no access to toilets for 24 hours
• Taken to a swampy campsite after working a 14-hour shift

CPUK has said that the episode was part of an assessment for a qualification inspectator safety and that the working conditions are "thenature of the business".

The former deputy prime minister John Prescott has urged the Home Secretary to investigate allegations that a security firm used unpaid jobseekers to steward the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

A report in The Guardian alleges that Close Protection UK (CPUK) asked stewards - who included up to 30 jobseekers and another 50 people on apprentice wages - to sleep under London Bridge before working a 14-hour shift.

Mr Prescott wrote in a letter to Theresa May that CPUK showed a "blatant disregard for the care of its workers". He said the allegations raise "very serious questions" about the "suitability of using private security contractors to do frontline policing."

CPUK has denied a lack of care.

Shadow Foreign Minister Kerry McCarthy has tweeted that a group of long-term unemployed jobseekers were forced to bring their own tents to the capital and left to "sleep" under London Bridge.