VOTE2019Workers’ rights
END THIS LOW PAY EXPLOSION BY RYAN FLETCHER
Labour pledges to end in work poverty
Britain is facing an explosion in low paid and insecure work, with more than a fifth of working households now living below the poverty line.
In the UK today over five million workers are paid below the real living wage (£9.30), which is independently-calculated and based on what people need to receive to keep upwith the cost of living.
Almost 60 per cent of people in poverty are in families where at least one person is in work.
Zero hour contracts have increased five five fold since 2010, with nearly 900,000 people working without guaranteed hours.
Meanwhile, the number of people working in the gig economy has more than doubled in five years to five million.
Time for higher pay
and secure work
• Ban zero hours contracts • Raise minimum wage to at least £10 an hour for all workers by 2020
• Roll out maximum pay ratios of 20:1 in public sector – stopping excessive executive pay
• End pay cap and above inflation pay increases for public sectors workers
Unite member and hotel worker Anna is working harder than ever on her zero hour contract, cleaning 15 rooms in her five hour shift. But despite all her hard work Anna is still only paid the minimum wage for over 25s of £8.21 an hour.
Anna said, “I have a family to support and can barely pay my bills. I work Monday to Friday 9 am-2 pm because I can’t afford childcare and take home £500 a month. Some months it will be less as I’m also on a zero hours’ contract.”
Unite member and waiter Kieran was shocked when he discovered an old payslip from 2004 that showed his gross pay before tax for two weeks’ work came to £1,227.
He said, “I compared this to several of my payslips for the past few months. They showed I am only now earning between
18 uniteWORKS Winter 2019
£600 to £800 every two weeks, yet I know I’m working harder than I ever did back then and my restaurant is running on much less staff. How did this happen?
“What I’ve seen is that as the minimum wage has steadily increased my employer has steadily taken things away from me to pay for this. I no longer have any guaranteed hours – so my income fluctuates and I can’t plan my finances properly. They are actually paying me much less than they did 15 years ago.”
Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the explosion of low paid and insecure work was down to decades of attacks on workers by the Conservatives.
“The Tories are always the same. In the 80s it was dole queues and sky-high inflation. Now it’s zero hours contracts, Universal Credit and foodbanks. And if they win again it’ll be more of the same.”
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Within our first year of office Labour will end in-work poverty
John McDonnell, Labour Party conference, 2019
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