It's Young Workers' Month

November is the Trade Union Congress' Young Workers' Month.

Why do we need Young Workers' Month ?

• Presently there are 683,000 people aged 16-24 (or 14.8%) who are looking for and available for work: youth unemployment rate is nearly three times the rate for all workers aged 16+ 
• In 2014 19.6% of young workers were underemployed, more than double the percentage of any other age group. Underemployed workers are those people who have jobs but want to work more hours than they currently do. Young workers have consistently been twice as likely to be underemployed than workers in general, meaning it has become commonplace for them to be trapped in jobs that don’t have enough hours to provide the income they need.
• 255,000 young people (or 6.7%) are in zero hours contracts, meaning that the proportion of people in zero hours contracts is three times higher for young people than the adult population generally.
• Young people’s wages fell disproportionately further than those of older workers during the downturn. Between 2009 and 2014 median hourly earnings for 22-29 year olds (excluding overtime and RPIJ-adjusted) fell by 12.7%, 
• The inevitable consequence of this low pay is young people finding it harder and harder to get by. The most recent figures show that 1 in 5 (22.4%) young people are at risk of poverty.

The National Minimum Wage- introduced in 1998- allows a lower rate for workers under 21.  The Government's wrongly-called "national living wage" coming in next year, will only apply to the over 25's- leaving young workers falling further behind.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Younger workers must be treated fairly. It is wrong to leave 21 to 24 year olds out: they face the same expenses as other adults and are highly productive. Not paying them the full minimum wage will demotivate younger adults, who will get less pay than their colleagues for the same work."

Eastbourne Borough Council- to its shame- takes full advantage of the young worker rates: our freedom of information request showed that during August 2015 47 young staff (6% of the council workforce) were paid less than the minimum wage rate of £6.50 an hour. 

Why Should Young Workers Join a Union ?

Here come the cuts....again !

East Sussex County Council is launching a "consultation" about proposals to massively cut the funding of Adult Social Care services in the County. 

Already these services which care for our elderly and other most vulnerable people in our society have been cut to the bone. For many years, as activists, we've heard the hollow promise whenever cuts are floated by a local authority, that the "voluntary sector" will be supported in picking up the pieces. However, now even the grant funding to charitable and third-sector providers is being slashed, so these services will go too.

It is proposed that the budget for commissioned services will be cut by more than 75%, meaning the end of such valuable services as the "home from hospital" care support currently provided by Age Concern Eastbourne, supported by grant funding.

Back in February, when ESCC agreed £18 million of cuts as part of a three-year £67 million cuts package, David Elkin, Tory County Councillor for Eastbourne's Sovereign Ward claimed: “We’ve proven in recent years that we can be trusted to act prudently and responsibly, but the climate of austerity we’re operating in means more difficult decisions have to be made...[1]"  Whether his constituents who rely on the direct or commissioned services he's voting to cut will agree, is another matter. Laughably, he more recently claimed: "This is a challenge but also an opportunity to come up with imaginative new ways of delivering services, including working more closely with our partners, communities and the voluntary sector.[2] "   More creative ways meaning cutting the funding to the voluntary sector just as he has to directly provided services, presumably.

The final budget plan will be put to the County Council in early 2016. The Tories do not have a majority on the County Council- having to rely on Independents and UKIP to prop them up. Please lobby your local councillor, and also take part in the online "consultation" making clear you oppose these service cuts. The consultation is open until 24th November.

We will keep you up to date with other action- including any protest or industrial action in support of jobs and services that is called by the affiliated trade unions.

Eastbourne: Poverty Pay in the Public Sector !

EASTBOURNE BOROUGH COUNCIL: 42% of staff paid less than Living Wage

EAST SUSSEX COUNTY COUNCIL: 27% of staff paid less than Living Wage

EAST SUSSEX  HOSPITALS (DGH): 11% of staff paid less than Living Wage. 

As it is Living Wage week, we were keen to look at the situation for workers in Eastbourne. Eastbourne has many staff employed in the hospitality, leisure and retail sectors, all of which have traditionally been low-paid- although Morrisons and Lidl have recently joined the ranks of Living Wage employers. A number of other employers active in Eastbourne have also signed up to the Living Wage foundation's Living Wage accreditation, paying all staff over 18 £8.15 or more. You can read these here

Brighton and Hove City Council is accredited as a Living Wage employer, and Hastings Borough Council pays all of its directly employed staff above the Living Wage rate. So the public sector is setting a good example, yes ?...... Sadly not in Eastbourne !

East Sussex County Council employs a total of 16,200 people (many are part time and/or casual- the full time equivalent is 8,717 )   Of these, a staggering 4,373 were paid below the living wage rate- then £7.85-  in August, that's 27% of the council's workforce.

Eastbourne Borough Council employed 741, and 314 of these were paid less than the living wage. This equates to just over 42% of the council workforce.

Of those, we established that 27 were under 18 (the age at which the Living Wage Foundation expects their accredited employers to pay the Living Wage.)

Shockingly, the Borough Council still takes advantage of the lower rates within the national minimum wage to pay under 21's even less:  47 staff were paid less than the adult national minimum wage of £6,50 !

Perhaps the NHS would be better ?

Sussex Community NHS Trust, the main provider of NHS community health and care services across West Sussex, Brighton & Hove and High Weald, Lewes and Havens area of East Sussex has been paying the Living Wage since 2013. Sussex Partnership NHS Trust which provides services for those with mental health problems, learning disabilities or an addiction to drugs or alcohol have agreed to do the same at Board Level and are currently looking at the logistics around implementation.

As for the good old East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Eastbourne DGH- not such good news..... as we reported earlier, of a total workforce of 7314 across the trust (including the Conquest Hopsital in Hastings) 790 people were paid less than the Living Wage: around 11% of the workforce.

Trades Council secretary, Dave Brinson recalls: "I was in a meeting a couple of years ago, when an official of the Borough council berated me for suggesting that the town was a 'low wage' economy, This would seem to prove a point- and the Borough Council itself is at the forefront of perpetuating it !"

Source for EBC and ESCC information: FoI request by Dave Brinson, covering August pay period. Source for NHS information, FoI request by Unison. 

It's (REAL) Living Wage Week !

Living Wage Week is a UK-wide celebration of the Living Wage and Living Wage Employers.

This year Living Wage Week begins on Sunday 1 November and runs to Saturday 7 November.
The week sees accredited Living Wage Employers across the country celebrate their commitment to the Living Wage.

The Living Wage is an hourly rate set independently and updated annually. It is calculated according to the basic cost of living using the ‘Minimum Income Standard’ for the UK. Decisions about what to include in this standard are set by the public; it is a social consensus about what people need to make ends meet.

Don't buy into the George Osborne dishonest talk of the new "living wage": the real Living Wage is independently calculated based on EVIDENCE !:

Living Wage Foundation Director, Rhys Moore explains: "The Living Wage is a robust calculation that reflects the real cost of living, rewarding a hard day’s work with a fair day’s pay."

New research reveals that almost six million people (23% of the working population) are paid less than the living wage. This is nearly half a million more than last year and an increase for the third year in a row – up from 21% in 2013 and 22% in 2014.