"TONY BLAIR is hypocritical and can’t be trusted. He has repeatedly refused
to repeal Tory anti-trade union laws which prevent workers from protecting
themselves."Workers’ rights have not improved under New Labour. Britain has continued
to opt out of European Union guidelines intended to protect workers, such as
the maximum 48 hour week."The government has implemented insulting minimum wage levels, whilst
failing (till now) to set a minimum wage at all for workers under 18."
That was a PCS member commenting on Blair’s speech at conference.
On 1 October, the national minimum wage gets its yearly increase. The adult
rate rises from £4.50 to £4.85 an hour, the rate for 18-21 year-olds will rise
to £4.10 an hour. And 16 and 17-year olds will now get some form of minimum
wage as they do in many other European countries, even though it is only a
pitifully low £3 an hour.
Many people would agree with the PCS member’s assessment of the minimum
wage level as ‘insulting’. The bosses’ organisation CBI, though, think it is
too high! They would be monitoring the impact of the rise on employers’ profit
margins to see if the government had "overdone it".
In fact, new figures show that employment has grown in sectors where the
minimum wage has had the most impact. But that has been in a period of
relatively high profits. The CBI’s outburst shows that the bosses may use any
weakness in the trade unions to try and weaken still further the minimum wage
laws.
