Staffline’s Labour of Profit

A full-time secure job that pays the bills is all but a distant dream for most people; just as capitalism’s longstanding dream-come-true of a steady flow of flexibly underemployed and poorly paid human fodder is becoming the daily reality for an ever increasing number of people. In this nightmare scenario, temporary recruitment agencies fulfill a crucial role for a capitalist system determined to place business needs before human needs.

Staffline Group plc is just one such employment agency that is perfectly positioned to benefit from the government’s ongoing attacks on organised labour and the “weakening UK economy.” Moves which in the eyes of their chief executive are interpreted as an opportunity for growth.

Formed in Nottingham in 1986, Staffline has done what any successful capitalist enterprise does best… eliminate competition. Some rival agencies are driven out of business, but usually it is more profitable to simply purchase any would-be competitors — which in industry jargon are “excellent bolt-on acquisitions.”

For example, last year Staffline bolted five recruitment agencies onto their portfolio of experienced labour exploiters. In January 2011 they acquired Newcastle-based Kelburn Industrial, in March the Daventry-based Ethos Recruitment, in April the Solihull-based but Dutch-owned welfare-to-work provider FourstaR Employment, in July Wellingborough-based Arnashade Recruitment, and finally in September the Nottingham-based Taskforce Recruitment.

To the delight of Staffline’s chief executive (Andy Hogarth), after acquiring FourstaR Employment last year, they took under their wing FourstaR’s germinal workfare provider Eos Works Ltd (Eos). Hogarth whose total salary in 2011 was £351,000 (an increase of over 20% on his previous years income) was “delighted” with the impact that Eos has had on Staffline’s bottom line.

This is because soon after the acquisition, “the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) confirmed that Eos had won a £93m five year contract to provide the Work Programme (WP) in Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country”; which was shortly followed by a further two DWP contracts “worth £53m over three years.”

Defending the much maligned welfare-to-work programs, Hogarth noted that such providers are “being unfairly targeted at the moment by a number of interest groups…” By which he means interest groups with a legitimate concern with the welfare of workers, like for instance, unions.

Needless to say despite reaping massive profits by intensifying the exploitation of workers, Staffline’s management like to present themselves to their family and friends as caring and compassionate human beings.

Staffline’s chairman John Crabtree therefore apparently cares for both the elderly and disabled children, as he a patron of Kemp Hospice and the chairman of the board of trustees of the children’s charity, Sense. Such philanthropic aid however comes only after Mr Crabtree’s active pursuit of capitalism, whose inhumane growth priorities penalize the most vulnerable members of our society (especially the elderly and the disabled).

Among Mr Crabtree’s other assorted business interests, Mr Crabtree is the chairman of the leading Scania dealer, TruckEast Ltd. In 2007, TruckEast was then “bolted-on” (acquired) by Keltruck Limited, which prides itself on being the largest independent Scania dealer in the world. The owner of Keltruck, and Mr Crabtree’s close colleague, is Chris Kelly who is a leading member of the Midlands Industrial Council, a Tory interest group that champions the cause of so-called free enterprise. (Note: Kelly’s son of the same name is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Dudley South.)

In the past Mr Crabtree’s ever mindful business colleague Chris Kelly served on the council of the Tax Payers’ Alliance; which for those who don’t know is a collection of tax averse businessman who joined together to ensure that they pay still less tax to fund public services. (On this point, see Spinwatch’s useful article “A closer look at the TaxPayers’ Alliance.”)

A large chunk of the Tax Payers’ Alliance’s money comes courtesy of their charitable arm, the Politics and Economics Research Trust, which until 2009 included former UKIP leader Lord Pearson of Rannoch among their “charitable” trustees. Although one should add (with disgust) that the Trust is supported by Labour and Tory MP’s alike.*

Returning to Staffline: in February 2012, in order to bolster their businesses elite credentials Staffline’s management invited Diane Martyn onto their board of directors. Martyn is highly experienced within the world of temporary employment and recently served as the CEO of the British branch of Randstad Staffing: Randstad being the second largest temporary recruitment agency in the world (second only to Adecco) employing over 576,000 people every day.

To illustrate the interconnected nature of the world’s most powerful corporations, the chairman of Randstad, Fritz Fröhlich, serves on the board of directors of Rexel SA which is in turn is chaired by Roberto Quarta (whose background and membership of the board of directors of SPIE are discussed in my previous article “Opposing Victimisation at Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station”).

Another notable member of the ruling class counted as a board member of Randstad is Henri Giscard d’Estaing, who is the chairman and CEO of luxury holiday provider Club Mediterranee SA, and a board member of one of the world’s leading food retailers, Groupe Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA.**

Fittingly, on Groupe Casino’s board, Henri sits beside Lady Sylvia Jay, who is the Director General of the food industry lobby group the Food and Drink Federation. Like Staffline’s chairman Mr Crabtree, despite her role as an advocate for capitalism, Lady Jay likes to think of herself as a bit of a do-gooder and is a recent trustee of the Body Shop Foundation, and current trustee of the Prison Reform Trust.

Likewise, given the Roberto Quarta connection cited above, it is interesting to note that the vice president of the Food and Drink Federation (Iain Ferguson) is a board member of the notorious ‘dirty seven’ construction company, Balfour Beatty.

In conclusion, there is no doubt that in a humane and democratic society temporary recruitment agencies like Staffline and Randstad will have no place. Capitalism is the problem and socialism is the answer; human need should always trump managements profits.

In the meantime the Socialist Party recognizes that it is critical that all workers employed by such exploitative temping agencies must be unionised. This is no easy task but it is one that all unions need to take seriously if they are serious about not merely defending, but extending, the pay and conditions of all workers.

The case of the 2 Sisters Food Group provides the perfect example of how management cynically utilise (largely non-unionised) temporary agency staff to undermine the pay and conditions of workers (unionised or otherwise). Thus when nearly 500 ‘2 Sisters’ workers in Leicester went on strike in June 2012, it was Staffline who provided the scab labour to keep 2 Sisters factory running; and it is now Staffline who employ many of the underpayed workers at 2 Sisters’ Nottingham factory, to which most of the work from Leicester is being transferred.

Such manipulative and divisive tactics make it all the more important that workers not only join a union, but also push their union representatives to link up their local struggles up with those of other workers in other workplaces and unions across the country, and ultimately across the world.

This is not always easy to do which is precisely why the Socialist Party is involved with the National Shop Stewards Network (launched by RMT in 2007) which seeks to strengthen confidence, democracy and accountability at all levels of all our unions. Ultimately the old saying says it best: The workers united will never be defeated!

 

FOOTNOTES

* Only four people presently serve on the Politics and Economics Research Trust’s board of trustees and these are: Richard Smith, a member of the Midlands Industrial Council; John Mills, the secretary of a Labour Eurosceptic campaign; Patrick Barbour, the founder of Reform, a free-market think tank which advocates lower taxes and is supported by both Labour and Tory MP’s alike; and businessman Peter Michael Brown.

** One could note that Lady Jay is a former board member of Carrefour, the world’s second largest food retailer (after Walmart), as was Ahold’s current Chief Commercial & Development Officer James McCann. The McCann connection is noteworthy because a current board member of Ahold (the major international supermarket operator) is Ben Noteboom, that is the chairman of Randstad. In a further demonstration of the incestuous nature of the ruling class Ahold Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Carr, formerly held a senior management position at Associated British Foods, whose current board members include Lady Jay’s husband Baron Jay of Ewelme.