Last night I was furious to discover that giant multinational IT company Atos is not only responsible for administering the government's hellish Work Capability Assessment, they have also been providing occupational health services in this country for years too, in 2010 they even won an award for it.
So they are declaring the sick capable of work, then if you are lucky enough to get a job (if your not one of more than half the people declared fit for work who end up destitute) you will still probably have to put up with them telling you how much time you can have off when your illness returns. As none of these people being declared fit for work have actually got better, they are just expected to work around their disability, so there is no escape from the bastards it seems.
Yesterday I learned that Co-Op uses their occupational health services, so much for ethics eh? They have posted a statement saying they can't just close the contract but will consider not renewing it. So DPAC are encouraging people to boycott them and go and inform them of this on their facebook page, at least until they issue a statement saying they definitely won't renew the contract.
I did some digging last night and found that:
- Royal Mail also uses them, and until recently
- The Armed Forces Mutual Support Organisation had a phone line provided by Atos. The page has been removed now but still shows up in the google cache.
- DEFRA also uses their services.
- West Sussex County Council,
- and Lancashire County council also uses them too.
Since they are apparently the number one provider of Occupational health services in the UK there must be many more companies and councils using them too, and I saw lots of job vacancies for them posted all over the country.
This post informs you of much money they are raking in with double digit growth in the UK this year, as lives are daily ruined and even ended by the software they own the copyright to. And I'm also learning that this huge multinational company owns oil companies (including Shell and Esso), electronics manufacturers and many more highly profitable companies, more on that to come as I collect the evidence.
3 comments:
Norfolk County Council also uses ATOS for pre/post emlpoyment health checks;
See here:
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.norfolkartsforum.co.uk%2FConsumption%2Fgroups%2Fpublic%2Fdocuments%2Fdocument%2Fncc089765.doc&ei=unhkUP7NCcrs0gXYu4DoAQ&usg=AFQjCNHyPVpJE57AXMAy77EGG_ugFM2Q4w
and here:
http://openlylocal.com/suppliers/209302-atos-healthcare-ltd
It is probably just a lot of nonsense for the Co-op to claim that they cannot just break the contract with Atos. It would be a most remarkable contract indeed if it were binding on the part of the user of services even if the provider of those services failed to satisfy their obligations properly.
Hence, to get out of the contract, all the Co-op needs to do is to review how well Atos has performed...
I hope you're doing well. Looks like life has been tough for you the last couple of years. I returned to blogging last year, but decided to focus on my writing and only do strange science posts every once in awhile.
I'm reposting that ghostly encounter you shared with me back in 2005 on my blog today!
Jay Noel (The Phoenix)
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