As most people tighten their belts, Poundland have announced another year of record profits, raking in £31.7m, a whopping increase of 34%, in 2010/11, boasting of their ability to compete in 'turbulent economic conditions'.
It's little wonder that Poundland bosses find themselves in the role of cheerleaders for austerity. As times get harder for the rest of us, they make even more of a fortune out of selling cheap. And they have lots of practice at impoverishing their workers - company records show the average yearly wage in Poundland is an abysmal £10937.03.
The shameless scroungers who run Poundland already rely on the state to top up these miserable wages with tax credits and housing benefit, rather than doing it themselves from their ever-increasing profits. Now they have leapt to gobble up another handout, in the form of free labour from the government's workfare programmes.
Fortunately, there has been a backlash against Poundland's corporate welfare dependency, resulting in a lawsuit from Cait Reilly, a woman from Birmingham who was forced to abandon her volunteer work in a museum in order to stack shelves at Poundland for no pay.
Brighton Benefits Campaign calls on Poundland to stop their reprehensible exploitation of the unemployed and the poor. We will continue to campaign against Poundland until they abandon the use of workfare and instead employ people to do the work they need, on a proper wage.
“Poundland takes on disabled people in a deal with DWP via Mickey Mouse scheme. The claimant only works for 4 weeks including anti-social hours, stacking. The claimant is told at the beginning of the placement that there will be no job. My friend finished his placement and was immediately replaced by another disabled person. This is exploitation.”
(A former Poundland dole slave, speaking to Boycott Workfare)
