Labour, Commitment to Workers’ Rights?
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has confirmed that his family’s wholesale business currently does not pay all workers the “real living wage“, underscoring the ongoing struggle for workers’ rights under the Labour Party’s current leadership. Critics claim Labour, once for the working class, now resembles Tories, favouring corporates over labour reforms.
Unions criticized Labour’s “New Deal for Working People,” saying it dilutes the promised minimum pay linked to living costs. Unite the Union has derisively labelled it as having “more holes in it than Swiss cheese.” The union warns that the numerous caveats and loopholes could turn it into a “bad bosses’ charter.”
Working people expect Labour to be their voice, standing firm against corporate profiteers who are intent on maintaining a status quo that generates colossal profits at the expense of everyone else. The country desperately needs a Labour government, but the party must demonstrate its commitment to improving workers’ rights. Measures like banning fire and rehire practices, without any loopholes, are crucial. Unions have already criticized Labour’s “New Deal for Working People,” which aims to introduce new minimum rates of pay linked to the cost of living, as a diluted version of the original promise.
Sarwar, not directly involved in United Wholesale, said on BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show that if Labour wins, his family’s business must pay the “genuine living wage.” Other parties accused him of hypocrisy, highlighting the gap between his words and his family’s business actions.
The Living Wage Foundation currently advocates for a real living wage set at £12 per hour across the country and £13.15 in London, which is 56p more than the national minimum wage Labour introduced in their 1997 manifesto. While Labour has not specified the exact rate they would introduce, they support a “minimum wage taking account of the cost of living.”
Sarwar waived his right to benefit from his family’s firm in 2017 after becoming an MSP. Despite this, he confirmed that the firm does not pay all staff the Living Wage Foundation’s real living wage rate but assured that they will receive a cost of living-linked rate of pay if Labour wins. He emphasized that all businesses, including his family’s, would have to comply with the new deal for working people, which aims to deliver a genuine living wage across the country.
Labour’s watered-down policies and the perceived hypocrisy of its leaders suggest that the party may no longer be the robust champion of workers’ rights it once was. To regain the trust of working people, Labour must take a strong, unequivocal stand against corporate interests and ensure that its policies genuinely benefit the working class.