Opinion: Labour's New Deal for working people

Everyone deserves a job they can build a life and career with, no matter who they are or what job they do. Our ambition to ensure a fair day’s pay for a day’s work is core to our, Labour, values.

Research states that 80% of the working population are worried about being treated fairly at work and not having secured employment.

This is particularly true in Peterborough where we are still too much of a low-wage economy. One in four working people are in what are called ‘severely insecure jobs’, one on the highest levels in the country, meaning they don’t have regular hours or shifts.

Too many jobs pay the National Minimum Wage which, from April, increases to £11.44 per hour. Many

staff working in the public sector will only be earning 1p more an hour. Those staff that are lucky to work for an employer that pays the Real Living Wage of £12.00 per hour will see the benefits of earning more than the National Minimum Wage.

We need to do better. Our young people deserve the opportunity to progress at work and be able to afford a decent home and to bring up a family in relative comfort. Whilst those at the top get away with different rules, the rest of us face a tougher time.

Remember the P&O scandal? You may recall that staff were fired and then rehired on lesser terms and conditions. Then imagine yourself coming into work one day, being fired and then re-hired the day after on worse terms and conditions. But you don’t have a choice because you need that job.

Zero contracts can be used against staff. You’re given a zero-hour contract, and your employer wants you to work over 40 hours in a week. You are unable to work all these hours because of, perhaps, childcare, or caring for an older relative, ill health or disability, but if you refuse, you’re not given any hours the following week.

Earning a Real Living Wage, staff feeling safe in the workplace and won’t have the fear of being forced to work over 40hrs in one week and not having any hours the following week.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to go to work and know that you won’t be dismissed and then re-hired on worse terms and conditions? Wouldn’t it be great just knowing that you feel valued in the workplace?

Labour will end in-work poverty by introducing a genuine living wage for all adult workers. This will include unfair dismissal, sick pay, and parental leave, giving working people under Labour rights at work from day one.

Labour will strengthen the protections afforded to all workers by banning zero-hours contracts, ending fire and rehire, and scrapping qualifying periods for basic rights, which leave working people waiting up to two years.

Labour will also tackle workplace harassment, give those with caring responsibilities greater protections, and will go further and faster in closing the gender pay gap, strengthening protections for working mothers. Labour will also put mental health on a par with physical health in our workplaces.

What a benefit that this would do for our city workers feeling safe and secure in a workplace.

The New Deal for working people is the biggest overall of employment rights for many years.

Don’t we all deserve high-quality, secure, rewarding jobs?