Low pay talks - Dignity the issue

TALKS on low pay open at the Low Pay Commission today. 

They begin against a background where the National Minimum Wage has not been seriously reviewed since 2007, nearly a decade ago.

Employer and business interests will, as is usual and natural, warn that national competitiveness must remain the guiding principles and anything that makes doing business more expensive than it is already must be resisted.

Workers’ representatives will complain about zero hour contracts and other take-it-or-leave-it impositions only possible in an economy with an unemployment rate of around 10%.

It is undeniable that those on the lowest pay scales in this society face a grim time, especially if they are a family’s main breadwinner.

We, and business, must be included in that collective, should work enthusiastically to improve the circumstances faced by the low paid, especially those on family income support.

It seems morally indefensible that an employee in a company recording reasonable profits is so very poorly paid that they need this welfare support.

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