The cost of living crisis continues to have a devastating impact on too many working families. Rising prices of everyday essentials mean that many are finding it impossible to survive. Usdaw’s survey of thousands of low paid mainly key workers
demonstrates the dire situation.
Nearly a third are struggling to pay gas and electricity bills every single month; over 60% have relied on unsecured borrowing in the past year to pay bills, and around 7 in 10 report that financial worries are impacting their mental health. While everyone is being impacted by the crisis, it is clearly having the greatest toll on those who can least afford it.
As a movement we need to be clear that the roots of this crisis are deeper than the Tories’ mismanagement of our economy or the global factors they like to blame. At the heart of the cost of living crisis is our weak employment rights framework, which robs workers of financial security or certainty and leaves them constantly vulnerable to economic headwinds and changes of circumstance.
The last 13 years are littered with Tory broken promises on employment rights. First it was the Taylor Review, then their pledge of the right to a ‘normal hours’ contract and the ‘high wage economy’ that they assured us they would build. Repeatedly they promised an Employment Bill, which never appeared, as they fiddled around the edges with private members’ bills.
They dithered and delayed with meaningless consultations, all of which came to nothing, but their failure to tackle one-sided flexibility has hurt working people and held back economic growth. We should never forget that, in the midst of an unprecedented squeeze on living standards, the Tories prioritised attacking the right to strike rather than driving up pay and working conditions. That says everything about who they are and what they believe in.
It is time for us to build a new type of economy. One where workers are properly recognised, rewarded and respected. Where we end insecure work, give working people the financial security they deserve and level the playing field by ensuring that flexibility benefits everyone, not just employers.
The scale of the challenge should not be understated. 3.9 million people are in insecure work, including a disproportionate number of Black workers and young workers. Over a million workers are on zero-hours contracts. There are 2.4 million underemployed people in our economy, who need more hours but cannot get them. Flexibility with regard to working hours should be a day one right. Everyone should have the option of a contract which provides stability and certainty.
The pandemic demonstrated just how vital retail workers are. The designation of key worker status was a recognition of the crucial nature of retail functions including the provision of food, drinks and other essentials for the general public to buy. Shopworkers’ pay and conditions should therefore reflect the importance of their roles to the country and wider society. It is very concerning that retail work often does not look how it should, and especially so given the significant additional pressures of the cost of living crisis, which is making things even harder for people.
Precarious working arrangements and conditions, and sometimes in-work poverty, mean even the essentials can be a challenge to afford. That is why we are bringing the issue of one-sided flexibility to Congress this week, along with addressing concerns on childcare, affordable housing, automation, new technology and artificial intelligence.
The Government backed Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Bill, a private members’ bill that introduces a new statutory right for workers to request a predictable working pattern, is not enough and amounts to a very small step. So, while we ask Parliament to support the Bill, we have to be clear that much more needs to be done to tackle insecure work.
We urgently need a new deal for workers and that is why we welcome Labour's pledge to enact one in their first one hundred days. Their proposals will be transformative. New rights for trade unions to access workplaces and changes to the rules around recognition will help more workers to have a collective voice, defend and improve their pay, rights and conditions of employment.
Under Labour’s New Deal, workers will get both reasonable notice of shifts and the right to a contract reflecting their normal hours, alongside other measures to tackle one-sided flexibility. Only Labour will provide the rights and protections our members so desperately need. The Tories have failed to deliver for the last 13 years. Their time is up. We need a change and a general election as soon as possible.