Shape your own workplace future

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn launched today (May 19) a new initiative that asks people to help create a vision for what they believe ideal workplaces of the future should be.

The initiative, called Workplace 2020, was launched at Ecotricity in Stroud this morning and is calling on submissions from both employers and employees.

“Workplace 2020 will be at the heart of how Labour is going to develop our alternative for the workforce of the 21st century,” Corbyn said.

“Instead of David Cameron’s Agency Britain, with its zero hours contracts, insecurity and wage undercutting, we will be engaging with workers and employers to shape the policies that will deliver the high quality jobs of the future.

“Instead of a race to the bottom in jobs, pay and workplace rights, we will be shaping a different approach for the 2020s: based on a full-employment, high-skilled workforce, with decent pay, rights for employed and self-employed, and a voice at work through collective bargaining,” he added.

“That’s the basis for a new business settlement in the economy of the future, one that benefits both workers and employers – and break with the low-pay, low-investment, low-productivity record of Tory Britain.”

Unite welcomed the launch of the initiative as proof of the party’s determination to improve the lives and treatment of working people.

“This is a fantastic move by the Labour party and is exactly the sort of initiative we expect from the real party of working people,” said Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.

“It sits in sharp contrast to a Conservative government that has always regarded workers and their unions as the `enemy within’, typified by their appalling trade union act,” he added.

“Crucially, this shows a Labour party willing to ask us all to consider what sort of country we want to be,” McCluskey pointed out. “One of low-wages, low skills and ever growing inequality, or one where people’s talents are harnessed and respected, and prosperity is shared by us all?

“I urge people to get involved, no matter what stage of your working life you may be at, so that Labour can build a programme that will deliver decent employment for tomorrow’s workforce.”

Unite is urging all members and their families to take part in the Labour party’s consultation – submit your ideas here.