JOYCE WATSON AM is supporting a campaign to save the National Minimum Wage from a Tory Bill to scrap it.
‘Wage Concern’ is campaigning to stop a Tory Private Members Bill that will undermine the minimum wage and drive millions of workers back to poverty pay.
The Employment Opportunities Bill, tabled by Senior Conservative Christopher Chope, who as a minister helped bring in the Poll Tax, is timetabled for its second reading in Westminster this Friday 15 May.
The bill aims to:
- allow employees to opt-out of the minimum wage
- ensure all public sector jobs are advertised openly
- grant the ‘right to work’ under the Declaration of Human Rights by allowing workers to be paid less than the minimum wage
Labour Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales MRS WATSON said:
"I know how much low paid workers' lives have improved since our Labour Government introduced the minimum wage in 1999, and know how much hard working families across Mid and West Wales would be hit by these Tory proposals. We live in an area where many people rely on the minimum wage, so we would be hit particularly hard by this proposed change.
"I am asking working people to voice their concern and sign the petition at http://www.blogger.com/www.wageconcern.com.
"The minimum wage provides income protection and security for millions of workers. It stops unscrupulous employers from driving down wages across the board. The new Tory ‘Employment Opportunities Bill’ would allow employers to opt out of their responsibility to their staff to pay a fair day's wage for a fair day’s work and effectively bring an end to the National Minimum Wage.
"This shows the Tories in their true light and is an insight into what a Conservative Government would do. They abolished the wages councils and left millions of workers without wage protection. Now we know that David Cameron means by 'an age of austerity'.
John Prescott, whose first job 55 years ago was working as a chef at the Patten Arms in Warrington on £2 7d a week in a job protected by the Wages Council Act, added:
"Only a Tory could suggest that not being able to work for less than minimum wage would be a denial of Human Rights. This from a party that actually wants to abolish the Human Rights Act and provide cheaper labour.
"We call on everyone who believes in fairness and social justice to join Wage Concern and help us kill this Tory Bill on May 15th."
Joyce added: "They want to turn the clock back to the days of poverty pay where workers are exploited by unscrupulous bosses. So much for Caring Conservatism - they seem to care more for bosses than ordinary hard-working people. Their response to the recession is to rob the poor to keep the rich.
"The minimum wage is a symbol of a civilised society, a floor to protect workers that gives them dignity. It is needed more than ever in tough economic times.
"Labour fought long and hard to establish the statutory national minimum wage, in the teeth of Tory opposition and unfounded scaremongering about massive job losses. Let’s show the Tories we don’t support them by signing the petition here."
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