Usdaw continues to call for the so-called ‘national living wage’ to reach the level of the real living wage, along with Labour delivering on its manifesto promise of a new deal for workers to help make work pay, through the Employment Rights Act (ERA), by giving all workers the right to a contract that reflects their normal hours worked.
Rachel Reeves today announced her ‘Great British Summer Savings’, which include:
- Fuel duty to be frozen, maintaining the 5p per litre reduction.
- Free bus travel for children during August.
- Cuts to agri-food tariffs, to help to reduce pressure on food prices.
- Temporary VAT cut on some visitor attractions and hospitality.
Joanne Thomas – Usdaw general secretary says: “The cost of living continues to be a major issue for our members and the measures announced today will help working people to make ends meet. However, fairly paid and secure jobs are by far the best way to help workers deal with rising prices. The Government has made a good start by significantly increasing minimum wage rates and passing the Employment Rights Act, but there is much more to do.
“The ERA has the potential to bring about the biggest uplift in workers’ rights in a generation and deliver on many of the campaigns Usdaw has been running over the years. Ensuring it is implemented properly will be key to truly tackling the cost-of-living crisis and ensuring that working people are better off. Retail employment is notoriously dogged by precarious employment practices and many retail workers absolutely rely on basic employment rights, particularly with non-unionised employers. So, the Act is incredibly important to workers and, crucially, it will help to protect decent employers from being undercut by the worst who exploit workers.
"A consultation is expected shortly on how the right to a contract that reflects the number of hours you normally work will be implemented. We believe that the Government must apply this right to all workers, which is what was promised in the Labour manifesto. If the Government restricts the right to workers who are contracted to a low number of hours it will create a major loophole that will undermine the right and cause serious difficulties for our members.
“Tackling precarious employment is good for the economy, growth and individual workers, who should have the decency of a wage that they can live off. Too many of our key workers are in low-paid, insecure work. They deserve more than being applauded in a pandemic; basic employment rights enforceable by law are the least the nation can do for these heroes who do so much for society and our communities.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest with around 370,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also represents many workers in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion