Jobhunter victim of G4S Olympic security fiasco
John Brown
JOBSEEKER John Brown turned down a full-time job after landing a security role with bungling G4S – only to be told that it was no longer available just 11 days before the Olympics start.
G4S was branded a national disgrace after it failed to honour a £284m deal to supply security for the London games.
Company boss Nick Buckles agreed that the firm’s performance was a “humiliating shambles” after providing just 4,200 staff for the Games - way short of the 10,400 guards it agreed to deliver.
Dad-of-six John Brown, 48, was promised a job after a successful interview with the firm in January - but he was stunned when he received a call on Monday to be told there was now no job because there were no longer any training opportunities.
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He said: “It’s a complete shambles.
“I have got six kids at home and I’m supposed to be the provider for them and I turned down a job for this.”
John, who has been out of work for three years, even rejected a 40 hours-a-week cleaning job in Hartlepool after the firm asked him where he wanted to be posted during the Games and signed him up for a day-long training course.
But when John arrived at the course in Gateshead he was refused entry on the gate and told it had been overbooked.
He said he has tried calling the firm every week for the last six months but was never once told the job he was promised was not secure.
“They have just fobbed me off” said John, who lives in Hesleden with his wife Christine, 32, and the couple’s six children, Brandon, 14, Thomas, 13, Shane, 11, Bret, nine, Ebony, seven and six-year-old Corey.
“The interview went so well and the woman there guaranteed me a job.
“They rang me up and told me I was part of the workforce and I was booked on the course at the start of June.
“I have applied for hundreds of jobs so to be told I had a job at the Olympics was great.”
“I turned up at the course and there loads of people there, huge queues,” said John, whose last job was in Tesco, in Hartlepool.
“When I got to the gate they turned me down.
“First they told me I didn’t have the correct ID but I had absolutely everything with me, then they said it had been overbooked.”
Despite being refused access to the course, John still believed he had secured a job.
As news broke of the G4S fiasco, John began to fear the worst and those fears were confirmed on Monday when he was told there was no more opportunities for training and he didn’t have a job.
“I was absolutely fuming,” he said. “They told me there were no longer any training opportunities available.
“I had turned down a cleaning job because I was promised the security job.
“I’m doing everything I can to get a job, applying for anything and everything but it’s devastating because you just can’t give the children what they want.
“I feel like I’m not worthy, it’s awful.”
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Monday 20 May 2013
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