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Members of the public and Socialist MEP Paul Murphy (far left) protest outside Advance Pitstop on Russell Street in Dublin Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

Protests at some Advance Pitstop branches over JobBridge internships

Advance Pitstop has said that it is availing of the scheme to provide nine-month placements to interns across its branch network.

ADVANCE PITSTOP HAS rejected criticism of its ads on JobBridge for sales fitters.

Protests against the company’s use of JobBridge will take place today, organised by an anti-JobBridge website.

In a statement on its Facebook page, Advance Pitstop pointed out that it employs 200 people in Ireland across its network of over 30 branches.

The company said it is currently availing of the Government’s JobBridge scheme “with a view to providing 9-month placements to interns across this branch network”.

The company is fully compliant with the terms of Government employment schemes, which it supports for the benefits they bring to both parties in these difficult economic times.  All JobBridge participants benefit from the investment in training by Advance Pitstop, and are trained and supervised by staff to the high standards dictated by our customer care policy.

According to Advance Pitstop, over 10 per cent of its current full-time staff initially joined the company on such a scheme, including two of its branch managers.

The company refutes any suggestion that it operates outside the terms of JobBridge.

With over 24,000 placements having been completed in organisations over the past two years, it believes the scheme is an important pillar of training and employment policy in the hard-pressed retail sector.

Paul Murphy MEP has said that ScamBridge.ie, an anti-JobBridge website, would hold a protest today against Advance Pitstop’s JobBridge ads for sales fitters.

imagePhoto: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

He described the company’s use of the site as “gross exploitation” and said:

This will be the first of many protests which will target Advance Pitstop to drive them from the JobBridge scheme. While we are protesting here in Dublin, there will also be a protest held in Cork. We plan to follow this up with further protests next week.

Read: Call for lifting of public service hiring embargo to cut JobBridge use>

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