I keep hearing stories about businesses on the island taking staff on, on a trial basis, and not paying them for the work they do.

As far as I can see, there can only be two reasons for doing this:

1/ The managers or owners doing the hiring are incompetent, and can’t be trusted to recruit good people

2/ It’s a cynical exploitation in these difficult times to get some free labour out of people looking for a job

If it’s the second, ask yourself what that tells you about the business.

If it’s the first, consider re-training for the recruiters or hiring someone else to do it.

Ultimately, there’s nothing wrong with taking someone on and seeing how well they do the job. There’s also nothing wrong with firing them after a short time if they don’t work hard, or if they aren’t very good, with the proviso that if it keeps happening, the recruiters are more likely to be at fault than anyone else.

But pay those people for the work they do for you during their trial period.

I know exactly what I think about the businesses that don't.