In their demands for sites critical of them to remove the material Atos considers to incite hatred towards its staff and members, Atos are following an increasing trend of bullying ministers, companies and even local councils fiercely intolerant of any criticism. You can read about similar cases in Private Eye, particularly in the Rotten Boroughs column, where local councils and some of the extremely dodgy companies with whom they have dealings have tried to shut down criticism from local residents. In the case of Atos, if there is hatred towards its staff and members, then it is warranted. The organisation has repeatedly lied and its administration of the assessments reduced the sick and disabled to grinding poverty and, in all too many cases, death. If you want to see three of the people, who’ve been killed by Atos and the DWP through the Work Capability Assessment, go over to Another Angry Voice’s site and check out his latest post attacking Peter Oborne’s puff piece on Ian Duncan Smith describing him as on a ‘moral mission’. And for at least 45 more, you can go over to Stilloaks blog.
Now let’s subject Atos’ concern for their staff’s safety to some criticism. I don’t believe for a single minute that they have any interest in the wellbeing of their personnel. I’ve reblogged on here ta piece from Youtube, where a former nurse with Atos describes her experiences working with the company. She describes the immense workload they were placed under, and which they had to complete, even if it was in their own time. She also describes the way they were expected to alter the results of the assessments in order to fulfil the quotas for the numbers removed from benefits – or otherwise – set by the company. She stated very clearly that Atos were one of the worst companies she had ever worked for.
This just about tells you all you need to know about the company. It’s just more bullying and hypocrisy, only this time directed at those that dare to criticise it, rather than the poor victims, whose lives are mangled and destroyed by the WCA. Mike has said to Atos: put up or shut. Well, I say, in the words of Private Eye ‘Arkell vs Pressdram’.
Disability campaign groups have started receiving threatening messages from OH Assist, the new face of Atos Healthcare.
The messages have been posted to Facebook pages belonging to the Welfare News Service, Black Triangle Anti-Defamation Campaign in Defence of Disability Rights, and Atos Miracles (so far).
They state: “We ask kindly that you remove this page as it incites hatred towards our staff and members. Thank you.”
The wording carries an implicit threat of litigation, as an administrator on Atos Miracles explained: “They are threatening to take legal action on those allegedly defaming them, as it incites hatred towards their staff. So can we take legal action for how they’ve treated the sick/disabled and vulnerable?
“As someone said, you take one of us on, you take all of us on.”
The post continued: “We have a right to our opinions, just as they think they have a right to (in…
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