-------- Original Message --------
Subject: FPI ++ Volume 3 Number 14
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 21:31:14 +0000
From: "Freedom Press" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: F R E E D O M P R E S S I N T E R N A T I O N A L, Volume 3
Number 14
3/ THE MINIMUM WAGE IN BRITAIN
SHORT CHANGED:
the National Minimum Wage
Last month the government introduced the national minimum wage (NMW).
Workers aged over 22 were entitled to a minimum =FA3.60 an hour and
those aged 18-21 to =FA3.00 an hour. Stephen Byers, the trade and
industry minister, described the NMW as 'historic', while TUC boss
John Monks said it represented "a land- mark day for Britain's low
paid workers". In theory some 1.9 million workers should see an
increase in their pay packets this month. The reality, however, is
very much different from the government's rhetoric. Trade unions are
angry and disappointed at the abysmally low rate the NMW has been set
at. =FA3.60 an hour represents an annual wage of just over =FA6,500 a year
for someone working 35 hours a week. As Rodney Bickerstaffe, general
secretary of the public sector trade union Unison said: "I defy anyone
to live on =FA3.60 an hour and be happy and content".
Young workers employed by Pizza Hut are certainly not happy and
content with the NMW. They actually saw their wages cut on 1st April
to bring them in line with the NMW. The restaurant industry is the
lowest paid in Britain, closely followed by security services,
cleaning and the clothing sector.
Unions are already reporting workers telephoning them saying that
employers are paying less than the NMW even though their wage slips
will show =FA3.60 an hour. Other employers are cutting their wage bill
by reducing hours of work but expecting staff to produce the same
level of work. One GMB organiser said "we have been inundated with
calls from people telling us their hours are being cut but they are
expected to do the same amount of work". Some manufacturers are paying
the NMW but deducting wages for the cost of worker's overalls. The
Financial Times reported the senior tax partner at Grant Thornton as
saying "what will happen is that minimum wage fiddles will be added to
fiddles for avoiding VAT and income tax".
In one survey a massive one in five of employers questioned said they
would not pay the NMW. Avoidance is likely to be so high because it
will be up to workers to report rogue emplo~ers. The Inland Revenue
has just a handful of inspectors to police the new system (in contrast
to the number pursuing benefit fraud). Even when caught employers just
face a fine of =FA5,000.
Next year the NMW is expected to rise to just =FA3.70 an hour. Many
unions are calling for a rate of =FA4.79 an hour and the Campaign For a
Living Wage has set a target for collective agreements of =FA5.00 an
hour. There is though a real danger that =FA3.60 will become a ceiling -
the level of poverty pay the government approves of and which it
becomes hard for unions to negotiate above.
The NMW shows that government intervention can make things worse not
better, as those workers experiencing a cut in the wages have found.
All governments try to get away with as little as they possibly can.
If New Labour was serious about tackling wage poverty the NMW would
have been set well above =FA3.60 and it would have been properly
enforced. The NMW will actually save the government money in lower
in-work benefit payments.
As anarchists know, the best defence workers have against low wages is
not the government but to organise together in trade unions. Those
industries with the lowest wage rates are generally the least
unionised. Many unions had already negotiated wage rates for their
lowest paid members above =FA3.60 by the time the NMW was introduced.
Anarchists abhor poverty pay (as well as the even lower amounts paid
to those on benefit). The Independent Labour Research Department
reports of a firm in Hampshire who were paying a 53 year old employee
who joined them on leaving school =FA62 a week for a full- time job, and
of a security guard in Manchester paid =FA1.87 an hour and of a woman in
London paid just 92p an hour. Anarchists campaign against poverty
incomes.
The reality is that the pockets of the low paid are empfied to line
those of the bosses. The NMW will not change this. If anything it may
institutionalise low pay as has happened in America. Can you imagine
the sort of rates a future Tory government would set? At present
almost a quarter of employers will ignore it totally. More will fiddle
their way around it. Others will find legal loop-holes. As one officer
for the clothing workers' union said: "there is no doubt that
employers will be trying every trick in the book" to get around the
NMW. So much for the historic day.
Richard Griffin
Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html
Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop
Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=3Dsubscribe%20leftlink
Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=3Dunsubscribe%20leftlink
