{"id":6072,"date":"2015-10-01T16:29:38","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T15:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6072"},"modified":"2015-10-02T13:21:20","modified_gmt":"2015-10-02T12:21:20","slug":"pay-rise-no-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6072","title":{"rendered":"Pay rise – no rise"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

More than a million workers earning the National Minimum Wage today (October 1) received a pay rise of 20p, with the adult rate going up to \u00c2\u01416.70 an hour.<\/p>\n

 
\nBusiness secretary Sajid Javid said that the 3 per cent rise in the hourly rate showed that the government was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmaking sure that every part of Britain benefits from our growing economy\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut headline stories of low-paid workers being awarded a few extra pence an hour obscures another story \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that, thanks to swingeing cuts to working tax credits, those on the minimum wage are actually being handed a pay cut.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe \u00c2\u01414.4bn in cuts to credits for low-paid workers will mean that low-income families will be on average \u00c2\u01411,000 a year worse off from April. In order to be compensated for these cuts, a 20p an hour pay rise doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even begin to put a dent in their losses.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn fact, one report estimates<\/a> that the NMW would have to rise to nearly \u00c2\u014112 an hour if the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lowest paid are to feel any benefit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Beyond numbers <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 
\nWhat many don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realise, too, is that a rock-bottom wage is accompanied by harsh realities that a mere analysis of numbers can disguise.<\/p>\n

 
\nMinimum wage workers are often the victims of wage theft, and of physical and verbal abuse. Being forced to work long hours to earn enough to live on, they commonly suffer from exhaustion so acute that a normal family and social life becomes all but impossible.<\/p>\n

 
\nUNITElive spoke to one former hotel housekeeper who can attest to the struggle of minimum wage workers.<\/p>\n

 
\nGonzalo Redondo was paid \u00c2\u01416.18 an hour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the minimum wage at the time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to clean 32 rooms in a day.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t finish cleaning all the rooms, you couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go home,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Redondo explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bDo you know what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like cleaning that many rooms? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a constant marathon. I was a slave.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou pay your bills, you buy food for the month and you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re left with maybe \u00c2\u014140,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you have an emergency expense, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re screwed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nWhat about his personal life? Redondo laughs. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI had no personal life. My entire life was the hotel. You make friends in the hotel, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re your only friends.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn my 34 years of existence, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the worst job I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve had in my life. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never been under so much constant stress. To be honest, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s probably the reason my relationship ended. I just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the time. I was always, always working.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nMany workers aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even paid the statutory minimum wage. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a migrant domestic worker, for example, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re submerged into an entirely different world that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s often beyond the reach of the law.<\/p>\n

 
\nAmira Harrak* is one such migrant domestic worker. When she first came to the UK she had no knowledge of her rights. The vulnerable position she was in allowed her employers to pay her as little as \u00c2\u0141150 a week for 12-plus hour days with no days off \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less than \u00c2\u01412 an hour.<\/p>\n

 
\nHarrak, too, was the victim of abuse.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen I first arrived, they showed me my room. It was a closet,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she recalled. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even given the entire closet. There was a printer and a washing machine in there, too. Sometimes, I would try to sleep after working for 13 or 14 hours straight, and someone would come into my room and ask for something they had just printed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOne time, one of my employer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sons took off his shoe and demanded I clean the sole. There was nothing on the bottom of his shoes; he just did it to make me feel bad,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Harrak said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI got called so many names \u00e2\u20ac\u201c dog, cow, donkey, things like that.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nEven in high street restaurant chains, ostensibly open to public view and scrutiny, minimum wage workers are still subject to a brazen theft of their already meagre wages.<\/p>\n

 
\nA Unite campaign forced a several chains such as Pizza Express to buckle under the weight of public pressure last month<\/a>, ending their policy of charging admin fees on waiters\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 tips left on credit cards \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but in all too many restaurants, the practice continues.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite regional officer for hospital Dave Turnbull explained just how absurd the practice is.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThink of workers doing overtime,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bImagine if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting overtime pay and your employer says to you that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll deduct 8 per cent from it just to process your overtime wages through payroll. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cost that much to process and no one would consider this arrangement fair.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Cast-iron” case<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nIn its submission to the Low Pay Commission<\/a>, Unite has called for the National Minimum Wage to be increased by \u00c2\u01411.50 to \u00c2\u01418 an hour immediately \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an entirely affordable hike that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been confirmed by research.<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith a growing economy and the reductions in working tax credits, the case for the NMW to go up by at least \u00c2\u01411.50-an-hour is cast-iron,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 argued Unite general secretary Len McCluskey.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis, in turn, will shake the economic recovery as it is the lower waged who spend in our high streets and communities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen they have a few extra quid, they buy their kids shoes or a coat, unlike the rich, they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t salt it away in a tax haven like the Cayman Isles.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite has also called for a range of measures that go beyond a simple wage hike, including spending more resources on NMW enforcement, stronger action on unfair tipping practices and closing the gap between the apprenticeship rate \u00e2\u20ac\u201c now set at \u00c2\u01413.30 an hour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the adult minimum wage rate.<\/p>\n

 
\nPutting an end to bogus self-employment in the hotel sector, as well as pushing for legislation that protects migrant domestic workers and others vulnerable to abuse also tops Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s agenda in its support for those in low-paid, insecure work.<\/p>\n

 
\nMcCluskey highlighted that justice for low-paid workers was a matter of political will \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one which the present Tory government has little appetite for.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt will be low-waged working families who will suffer when chancellor George Osborne swings his public spending axe,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBritain is the fifth largest economy in the world and we can be more generous in terms of pay \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and under shadow chancellor John McDonnell polices will be developed to tackle head-on the gross inequalities in pay and tax which Unite will strongly campaign for.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* Name changed to protect identity<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than a million workers earning the National Minimum Wage today (October 1) received a pay rise of 20p, with the adult rate going up to \u00c2\u01416.70 an hour.   Business secretary Sajid Javid said that the 3 per cent rise in the hourly rate showed that the government was \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmaking sure that every part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[23,96,124],"wps_subtitle":"Tory cuts hit poorest despite wage claims","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6072"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6072"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6083,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6072\/revisions\/6083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}