Will Hornett, low-paid worker
The Tories have announced new measures to supposedly combat companies paying below the new £7.20 minimum wage.
This sounds like a great idea. But Cameron and co have no interest in hitting the profits of their business pals. In reality the measures are paltry.
The key issue is that there are not enough resources to assess whether an employer is paying the minimum wage or not. And even if illegal pay is identified, the maximum fine is £20,000 – peanuts to many bosses.
I used to work in a café where, if you were over 21, your wage was only £6 an hour. That was a whole 50p less than the legal minimum. But the real wage would have been obscured on the company’s books. As we were on zero-hour contracts, the hours on our rota were almost never the hours we were paid for.
Tory measures also do not go far enough to help many migrant workers who are often exploited at far below the minimum wage. Language barriers, visa rules and attacks by the state and media make their employment especially precarious. Unregulated low pay drives many into poverty, and is in turn used to hold down all wages through competition for jobs.
Unions
Passing laws to protect workers is one thing, enforcement is another. From health and safety to proper pay, it’s trade unions which effectively protect workers.
If you’re exploited at work, the best thing you can do is join a union. The Socialist Party campaigns to help workers organise together and combat exploitation on our own terms. Then we can take the fight to the bosses together, rather than being individually bullied and manipulated.
