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SATs marking was 'chaos' - claim

6/ 8/2008

TWO girls hired by a Stockport temping agency to work in notorious SATS "marking factories" have spoken of the "chaos" in which papers were marked.

Sakinah Taifa and her sister Jenan were both recruited as data inputters in June, by the Stockport branch of Office Angels.

They were then sent to work for now-disgraced marking company ETS, first at their base in the Cheadle Village Hotel and then in a conference centre at the Manchester Airport Hilton.

The sisters claim most of the workers there were recruited by Stockport Office Angels - and that it was common to work 20-hour shifts and longer, with no training at all.

Sakinah, 20, who lived in Bramhall at the time, said: "It was a disorganised rabble. Chaos.

"They were literally taking on agency staff every other day. These people who were coming in were not trained - absolutely no training at all. By the end the security guard was marking papers.

"We were sat in rooms working with the curtains drawn because of the press.

"There were papers all over the floor, from different packets of papers, getting mixed up. You literally had to step over them.

"No supervisors were there when you needed them. The manager actually said, and I quote: ‘If we don’t get these done by Friday I’m going to get fired’, so they took on anybody and everybody.

"Everybody was coming from Office Angels, most of them from Stockport."

The sisters claim Cheadle Village was the first marking factory set up in the country, but operations were moved to the Hilton when they ran out of space.

Staff allegedly sat around doing nothing for hours on end, or became too tired to check things. The job was very appealing for many people, Sakinah said, because the shifts were long and well-paid and there was little supervision.

She added: "You got people literally just sitting there for 20 hours with their coffee.

"People did 22 or 23 hour shifts. I know, because I have done it; once, I did 48 hours in three days.

"Office Angels were aware of it," she claimed.

Jenan added: "It was ludicrous. I feel so sorry for the children whose papers they were - it’s not fair is it?"

A spokeswoman for Office Angels said they are currently conducting an investigation into the allegations.

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