Dear Editor,
Six weeks on from the 33p rise to the National Minimum Wage implemented on Sunday 1st April 2018 (now £7.83 for those aged 25 and over), workers in Scotland and throughout the rest of the UK continue to suffer from the disparity between wage increases and the rate of inflation.
Less than a year ago, the Low Pay Commission suggested that nearly two million jobs in the UK are currently ‘paid at or below the National Minimum Wage’, and predicting that ‘this is likely to rise to 3.4 million by 2020’.
The UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy recently exposed 179 companies that had underpaid many of their workers, including many with outlets in Edinburgh such as Wagamama, Thursday (UK) who trade as TGI Friday’s, and Cost Effective Catering Limited.
Amidst ever increasingly precarious short-term and low-wage employment, and with the Office for National Statistics revealing that almost 1.8 million throughout the UK are on zero hour contracts, the situation is only going to become worse for millions of working people and their dependents.
Zero-hour, part-time, sessional, and relief worker contracts mask the reality of unemployment and underemployment. In 2017, Cardiff University found that more than 60% of households living in poverty already had at least one working member.
With the National Minimum Wage now set at £7.38 for those aged 21-24, £5.90 for 18-20, £4.20 for under 18s, and a mere £3.70 for apprentices, workers movements, trade unions, and activists throughout the UK must pressure employers to both pay a livable wage to their employees and to guarantee work to those trapped in zero-hour contracts.
In this light, we should recognise the fantastic achievement of Richie Vention who, following his election to the National Executive Council of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) – the fourth biggest union in the UK – led a unanimously passed vote for a minimum 16 hour contract for all workers, save for when an employee wishes to negotiate for fewer hours.
In addition, the Scottish Socialist Party are to praised for their efforts four times a week with their Princes Street stalls calling for £10 an hour now for all workers aged 16 and over. This activism has ensured that workers in central Edinburgh never lose sight of the realities of poverty pay, and in fact the UK Labour Party has now also adopted the policy!
Given their recent efforts to highlight pay issues at the Princes Street Apple Store and as one of the only organisations to have responded to the poultry increase of thirty pence to National Minimum Wage, the consistency of the membership’s efforts are to be heralded.
This week, Three UK customers received a text or email alert notifying them of a 4% increase. When workers in the third sector and beyond face pay freezes, 1% cost of living awards, or minuscule pay rises for meeting core competencies, despite going over and above their duties on a daily basis – including regularly being forced to write service user contact notes at home due to a lack of work time – the current trajectory is unsustainable.
Luke Campbell, West Pilton
@chainuptheswing (Twitter)
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