Results against the odds

While the numbers of people illegally being paid below the minimum wage is a relatively minor phenomenon, in the West Midlands the problem is a more worrying one.

That’s because it tops the list of regions in the UK, where the greatest number of people earn below the mandatory minimum – with 40,000 people being ripped off by their bosses, a figure that’s nearly doubled from last year when it stood at 24,000.

These latest numbers add to other worrying trends in the region.

While in the rest of the country, unemployment has fallen, prompting national headlines proclaiming a jobs renaissance, the reality on the ground in the West Midlands is much different – in fact, it’s the opposite, with the region being the only one to experience rising, instead of falling, joblessness over the summer months.

More and more West Midlands families are living on the edge – just one accident, illness, or job loss away from being plunged into debt. A new study has found that while in the wider UK, 40 per cent of the working population has savings of less than £100, in the West Midlands more than half – 55 per cent – has less than £100 in the bank.

As the government’s most recent slash in the benefit cap comes into effect next week, it’s been estimated that 12,000 households in the West Midlands will be affected by the cap, a cut which is set to hit children the hardest.

And the TUC identified last year that in certain parts of the West Midlands, the proportion of jobs paying less than the Living Wage – the wage researchers have calculated as being the rate required to enjoy a basic standard of living – is more than half.

Unite West Midlands regional secretary Gerard Coyne explained the region may have higher rates of people being illegally paid below the minimum wage because of the high level of food processing jobs in the area.

Notorious

“This industry is notorious for exploitation, paying very low rates as well as having a high number of agency workers and migrant workers,” he noted. “It may also be that there are problems with enforcement of the minimum wage.”

Food processing jobs stand in stark contrast to the highly skilled, high-pay and unionised jobs in West Midlands auto manufacturing – the engine that keeps the region’s economy running.

Coyne points out that auto manufacturing, most of whose workers are Unite members, is the reason that areas in the region such as Solihull have experienced healthy, above-average wage growth.

The difference Unite has made for the West Midlands auto workforce was exemplified just yesterday (November 3), when the union secured 22,000 Jaguar Land Rover workers a massive pay deal.

It comprises a two-year deal of 3.5 per cent, plus a ÂŁ750 bonus in year one; and an inflation proofed retail price index (RPI) plus 0.5 per cent rise in year two. Unite members are now being asked to accept the deal in a consultative ballot.

Unite national officer Roger Maddison called it “an exceptional pay deal for an exceptional workforce recognising their skills and continued hard work in making JLR a world-beating carmaker.”

But Coyne warned that Brexit will be a major concern for the region in the future.

“That’s because the EU is where most of our exports in the region end up – any tariff barriers will hit the West Midlands hard,” he said.

At the moment, Coyne noted that the devaluation of the pound is actually helping the region because it’s been good for exports – but the boost will likely only be short-lived.

He points to other chronic challenges that the West Midlands region faces, such as a large under-skilled workforce.

“This is a major issue – we’re considerably behind the rest of the UK in training and skills,” Coyne said.

A dependence on the auto manufacturing sector can also be seen as a challenge in the West Midlands, Coyne argued, because it leaves the region vulnerable in the event of a downturn in that industry.

Frontlines

Behind the numbers of a region that in many ways is being left behind in the UK is Unite Community, which is on the frontlines of government cuts that Unite Midlands community co-ordinator Shaun Pender has said is hitting the West Midlands the hardest.

“The problems with the proliferation of low-pay, low-skill jobs outside of manufacturing in the region are being hugely compounded by cuts to local services and benefits,” Pender explained. “We’re seeing many people across the region being hit with benefits sanctions. Changes to disability support are seeing people fall through the cracks.”

He added that cuts to local services have meant protracted job losses in a sector that was a main source of secure, well-paid work in the region. In the last five years alone, under the weight of government austerity, the West Midlands has haemorrhaged an astounding 83,000 public sector jobs.

But just as Unite has supported the West Midlands auto workforce to achieve some of the best pay, terms and conditions in the country, so has Unite community stepped in to hit back against government cuts and reforms in the area.

“We’ve been working to give people advice when they’ve been sanctioned and have helped people appeal when they’ve lost, for example, disability benefits,” Pender noted. “Community members have stood outside Job Centres giving out leaflets and advice so that people going into Job Centres know their rights.”

Supporting Unite’s industrial side, local Unite Community branches have campaigned against, for example, cuts to children’s services in Worcester. In Birmingham, Community members banded together in a day of action against bookies William Hill’s attacks on workers’ pay. Another campaign has seen Unite community come out in support of health visitors, among other campaigns.

Pender emphasises that Unite Community’s work in the West Midlands is done collaboratively.

“We work with the trades councils, with groups like the People’s Assembly, with Labour activists and others within local communities,” he said. “We’re never on our own and together we’re making a big difference in the West Midlands.”

Investment

Both Pender and Coyne noted that the key to the West Midlands’ future economic prosperity is sustained and coordinated investment.

“We want to see a long-term industrial strategy that includes diversifying investment in different sectors while still playing to our strengths in manufacturing,” Coyne said.

He added that the election of a new West Midlands metro mayor next year could bring in the sort of harmonised, long-term investment the region needs.

Pender agreed.

“The problems that the West Midlands is experiencing now has been decades in the making after much of the heavy manufacturing jobs have gone and mostly low-wage jobs have come in to take their place,” he said.

“A proper investment strategy that addresses these structural problems in our region’s economy is the only way forward,” he added.

While Pender welcomed the opportunities a metro mayor could present for the region, he believes the West Midlands will need more.

“More than anything, we need a wholesale change in government – a Labour government that truly understands the importance of an industrial strategy that brings shared prosperity to all.”