27.06.1996

Labour’s fake wage promises

New Labour is talking about introducing a minimum wage - some time in the future. We must fight for one - in the here and now

There are still some people who maintain that new Labour really does have the interests of the working class at heart, even if it is deeply disguised at the moment to look like another Tory Party. ‘Wait and see’, they say. ‘Once we have a Blair government, “leftwingers” like John Prescott will come out of the closet and ride to our rescue’.

Those who believe in such fairy tales might take heart from the latest sounds emanating from the Labour Party. Senior members of the shadow cabinet this week have been hinting that the Labour Party will ‘impose’ a minimum wage on employers. This minimum wage will be the brainchild of the Low Pay Commission, a new body which will be created by the incoming Labour government in order to set the level of the wage floor. Labour front-benchers have ‘promised’ that the commission will have a strict time limit put upon its deliberations - “six months at the outside”, according to one senior Labour source.

So, should we throw our hats up in the air and shout, “Hurrah!”? This has been the reaction of John Edmonds, general secretary of the GMB union, who instantly declared: “This is a good step forward ... My understanding is that it will be on the statute books within a year.”

No, definitely not. These vague, and ultimately empty, ‘promises’ are a deliberate and cynical ploy to keep the working class and the trade unions aboard the New Labour ship, as discontent with the tenets of Blairism grows. When and if it comes, the so-called ‘minimum wage’ will mean poverty wages.

Just ask the Labour MP, Nick Raynsford. According to the latest issue of Private Eye (June 28), Raynsford let slip at an industrialists’ conference that the future minimum wage “would be set at a very, very low level”. This must have been music to the ears of the assembled company directors.

We can believe Raynsford’s prediction. Labour has already outlined the sort of “very, very low level” wage it has in mind - £3.15 an hour, if you are ‘lucky’. Far below even the European Decency Level, much admired by some, which aims for a more ‘civilised’ level of exploitation, £6.00 an hour.

The working class must treat these sops and promises, such as they are, with contempt. Labour MPs have already made clear that, after the election, any “sensible” proposal from the Low Pay Commission will be accepted.

New Labour defines as “sensible” anything which serves the needs of the bosses and the market place. We, on the other hand, must fight for the workers’ needs, not the electoral needs of New Labour. We say that the absolute minimum for a worker to live on, culturally as well as physically, is £275 per week - or £7.86 an hour for a 35-hour week.

If capitalism cannot afford to pay workers enough to live a decent life in this society, then society needs to be organised by those who can.

Paul Greenaway