just an email I got from USDAW, my Union, highlighting the danger of the Employment Opportunities Bill, proposed by the Conservative Party. This gives people the opportunity to accept being payed less than minimum wage.Usdaw, the shopworkers’ union, is leading a campaign to save the
National Minimum Wage from a Tory Bill to scrap it.
Usdaw has teamed up with John Prescott’s Go Fourth campaign and other
unions, to launch ‘Wage Concern’ to stop a Tory Private Members Bill
that will totally undermine the minimum wage and drive millions of
workers back to poverty pay.
The Employment Opportunities Bill, tabled by Senior Conservative
Christopher Chope, who as a minister helped bring in the Poll Tax, is
timetabled for its second reading in Parliament next Friday 15 May.
During the Bill’s first reading, Mr Chope said it will: “Introduce more
freedom, flexibility and opportunity for those seeking employment in
the public and private sectors.”
The Bill, which is supported by ten other Tory MPs, aims to:
* allow employees to opt-out of the minimum wage
* ensure all public sector jobs are advertised openly
* grant the ‘right to work’ under the Declaration of Human Rights by
allowing workers to be paid less than the minimum wage
More information - http://wageconcern.com/
On Friday 15th May, the Employment Opportunities Bill will be debated in Parliament. The Bill has been put forward by Conservative backbenchers and it would enable employers to ‘opt-out’ of the Minimum Wage brought in by the Labour government ten years ago.
If passed, the system would be wide open to abuse by unscrupulous employers. For instance an employment agency could write a Minimum Wage Opt-Out into any contract potential staff would have to sign.
Unbelievably, they tried to claim it was against people’s ‘Human Right to work’ to have a Minimum Wage.
This from a party that wants to scrap the Human Rights Act!





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