Living Wage Foundation denounces precarious work as Labor wakes up late Business News

The Labor Party belatedly woke up to the precarious work problem with its ‘New Deal for Workers’ in which flexible working would be the default position and workers, including entrepreneurs dependent on the odd-job economy, would get it. important rights from the start.

This represents what could be a very good question for the party, one which should have a much higher place on the political agenda. The reason is made clear in a report the Living Wage Foundation is releasing today.

He puts the number of people in precarious employment at 3.7 million, based on official figures, and points out that low-paid workers in this type of job are at greater risk of losing their job because of Covid-19 than their peers.

Almost half (46 percent), for example, were absent from their jobs during the pandemic, mostly due to time off, which, of course, means a 20 percent pay cut, compared to less than a fifth (17 percent) of their peers in more stable forms of employment, earning more than the Foundation’s (voluntary) living wage.

To take it a step further than the Labor Force and Family Resource Surveys, from which the data was extracted, the Foundation asked Survation to conduct a survey of 2,021 employees, the results of which highlight more about how unpredictable working hours can be and the impact on precariousness has on family life, health and the ability of workers to do things most of us take for granted: planning our lives , etc.

Among those paid less than a living wage, the survey found that 12 percent received 24 hours’ notice of working hours, shifts, or work schedules, nearly half (49 percent) said. received less than a week’s notice and more than two-thirds (68 percent) received less than four weeks’ notice.

Forty-two percent had experienced unscheduled shift cancellations and of these, 28 percent had received no payment. Almost all of them lost some salary.

Short notice periods that compromise the ability to plan their professional and personal lives and threaten to shift precarious household finances are a problem for hundreds of thousands of workers.

All of this, of course, is part of the Foundation’s Hours of Life campaign against precarious work. It is accompanied by the Living Wage campaign, which has proven to be a remarkable success.

I’ve said before that work is a corner issue that the Labor Party could and should exploit if it was just able to put aside its internal internal war and focus on winning the election. It is also a matter of marriage because it unites disparate parts of the party’s electoral base.

Problems at work are experienced by most people at some point in time. Insecurity, mistreatment, lack of rights are intergenerational problems. Data from the Foundation shows that those most exposed to precarious work are, for example, the youngest and the oldest.

That Britain could and should do better through them is a message that will likely be heard by traditional Labor supporters, who are often at the heart of these issues, but also by its newer, more prosperous and socially progressive supporters. They can have children. They may not be very comfortable entering the job market where their employers are allowed to trample on them while they are earning a pittance.

The Conservatives’ record on this is pretty bleak. Under their leadership, the workers were given a pair of inexpensive sneakers and a disposable torch for a night hike through a smelly swamp. The message to those entering the labor market for the first time? You’re all alone, kid.

The unions have been left to do all of the work when it comes to securing improvements for concert workers, mainly by fighting long and costly battles in the courts.

Now that they are aware of the problem, the Labor Party should continue to draw attention to him and to send the message over and over and over and over and over and over and over again that he can and will deliver something better. This is a potentially winning theme that could, if properly tapped, provide a much needed boost to the party’s ever-improving ratings.