Unemployed : Refusing to Apply for Jobs & Stopping benef

spen666

As I understand the rules on benefits, if you are unemplyed ( not on sick etc) you have to be acticvely seeking work and are required to take any suitable job

This story in papers today

Job centre advertises for £10-an-hour bikini-clad mud wrestlers (only women need apply)
A job centre is advertising a post for female mud wrestlers to wear bikinis and grapple with other women in a rubber ring for £10-an-hour.

Employers insist that the job is 'not porn' or 'adult work', but involves 'light-hearted mud-wrestling' for a pay-per-view site.
The job, advertised on the DirectGov website, states that only women are allowed to apply for the £10-£15-an-hour job.

A job centre is advertising a post for bikini-clad female mud wrestlers to grapple with other women for £10-an-hour (posed by models)
Applicants have until next Tuesday to apply for the position, which is based in Nottingham.

Employers Phantasia Leisure say it is looking for female mud wrestlers who are 'bubbly and confident' to take part in the mud wrestling show - which can then be watched by punters.

The advert says hours are 'completely flexible', but that the company would need girls to work a minimum of three hours to start with before the job became permanent.

Performers would not receive a pension, according to the advert.

It continues: 'This is not porn or adult work but light-hearted fun mud-wrestling.

'Flexible work patterns to suit and free transport to/from work from Nottingham, Loughborough, Derby and Leicester.

The advert states hours are 'completely flexible', but that the company would need girls to work a minimum of three hours to start with
'Applicants must be confident in front of a camera, have a great personality and look, and obviously not object to be covered head to toe in mud.'
According to a spokesman for Phantasia, the employer has claimed an exception under the Sex Discrimination Act so that women are only able to apply.

The advert also states that tax credits could help top up any earnings and that the job 'meets the requirements of the National Minimum Wage Act'.

Phantasia Leisure - which has been running for 2 years - also provide casinos, wedding discos, singers, bans, novelty acts, fairground rides, and a limo service.

A source said that women would be 'expected to wear bikinis and take part in 'various bouts' with other women in the 10ft-wide rubber arena.

He said: 'The job would involve women wearing two-piece bikinis and taking part in various bouts with other girls in front of the camera.'

Job hunter Claire Hunter, 27, of Nottinghamshire, said: 'I think this is demeaning.

'If I wanted to star in a seedy per-per-view mud wrestling contest I would expect a lot more than £10 or £15-an-hour.

'It might seem like a lot of fun, but in the end you've got bunch of guys watching you roll around in the mud in a bikini and that's just not worth it - it's a bit disgusting really and I'm surprised the Jobcentre is advertising it.

now, if you are female and do not apply for the job, are you refusing to take a suitable role and should your benefit be stopped? Asked another way, why should you be supported to not work, when you could be working and not being supported by tax payers.

If you think benefit should not be stopped in these circumstances, then when should they be stopped. When is someone refusing a job?

Look carefully at the job here, it is not providing "sexual" services although it may provide titilation. It is a lega lrole and the job centre see fit to advertise it - does that suggest it is a suitable job and benefits should be stopped?

bails87

Isn't there a similar situation in Germany, where prostitution is legal (I know some parts of prostitution aren't actually illegal here, but I'm sure you know what I mean). So someone could be offered a (completely legal) job as a prostitute, and in theory, turning down that job would lead to loss of benefits. However, in practice, I'm sure they take it into consideration.

The jobcentre advertise it because they're probably paid to advertise jobs, if not, they're still there to do it. I suppose removal of benefits would be done on a case by case basis wouldn't it.

Agent57

I looked on http://jobseekers.direct.gov.uk/ and can't find it. I am disappoint.

Ah, found it on http://www.myjobsearch.com/browse/5c07c3159a.html though.

richred_uk

I *think* that you are allowed to refuse jobs on 'reasoonable' moral grounds without it counting as a refusal to work. So for instance, I (a vegetarian) could refuse to work for an abbatoir, but couldn't refuse to work for a honey farm.

Take the above with appropriate weight of someone with 0 experience of this side of the job centre though.

notsoblue

Good old Daily Mail.

UndercoverElephant

Spen, you are on fire today.

tim_wand

I appreciate we are a diverse and erudite group on this forum, but in the last few days
I ve read threads about how bad/ good a football pundit is Mick McCarthay and now the morality of the well fare state!

I snt this a Cycling Forum?

Now if Mick McCarthay gets the sack form Wolves/BBC and decides to join Geoff Thomas on cycling to the Job Centre and needs buying advice then thats fair enough.

bails87

Mick McCarthy mud-wrestling?! :shock:

spen666

notsoblue wrote:

Good old Daily Mail.

Its in several paerrs today, but only electronic version I could find via google news was in Mail

spen666

bails87 wrote:

Mick McCarthy mud-wrestling?! :shock:

That's put me off my beer