Decent jobs call

When George Osborne said in his Autumn Statement that the majority of jobs created under the present government were full-time, he conveniently forgot to mention a few facts.

 
Namely, that most of these new “full-time” jobs are in sectors where average annual earnings are a pittance—less than £17,000.

 
Workers’ real wages have plunged by £1600 a year since the coalition government was elected in 2010. And, as the Independent revealed yesterday, taxpayers have been hit with a £900m bill this year alone in wage top-ups through tax credits, simply because all these much-vaunted new jobs pay so little.

 
Next week is Decent Jobs Week, a TUC initiative that aims to shine a spotlight on an economy that’s become addicted to insecure, low-wage jobs. With events held across the country, Decent Jobs Week will see workers gather to demand decent jobs with decent wages from corporations now recording sky-high profits.

 
Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner condemned the way in which low-wage jobs have overtaken the job market, creating a deeply unequal country of haves and have-nots.

 
“Low wage, insecure jobs are a blight on our society,” he said. “It is obscene that in the sixth richest country in the world, there are millions of people who work hours on end and are hardly above the breadline.”

 
Indeed, as a Joseph Rowntree Foundation report found last month, the number of working families in poverty has sky-rocketed under the coalition government. The report revealed that as many people from working families are now in poverty as from workless ones, and that nearly 1.4m people are now under zero-hours contracts.

 
Turner encouraged Unite’s members to participate in Decent Jobs Week, arguing that it is collective action and worker solidarity that drives the engine of substantive change.

 
“Decent Jobs Week is about standing up together and saying a full day’s work deserves a full day’s pay,” he said.

 
The TUC’s initiative next week will call for improved rights for zero-hours workers, decent employment rights for all, equal pay for agency workers, better enforcement of workplace rights for low-paid, vulnerable workers, and better access for all workers to union representation and collective bargaining.

 
“By demanding our due from tax-avoiding, cash-flush corporations and the politicians who kowtow to their every whim, we can create an economy that is fair for all and works for working people,” Turner went on to say.

 
“The path forward is clear—we need to promote the creation of skilled, unionised jobs, completely ban zero-hour contracts, enshrine the same employment rights for all, including for casual and agency workers, and raise the minimum wage to £8 an hour immediately.”

 
To find out more about Decent Jobs Week and how you can participate, along with details of events happening in your area, visit the campaign’s website here.