THE cost-of-living crisis has hit working people hard. Workers who were on the front line, keeping our country going during the coronavirus pandemic, have seen their living standards squeezed and their families suffer as wages have failed to keep up with soaring bills and sky-rocketing costs.

Usdaw’s latest cost-of-living survey of 7,500 low-paid key workers found that 83 per cent feel financially worse off than last year, almost two in three have struggled to pay gas and electricity bills and nearly three in four reported that financial worries are having an impact on their mental health.

At the heart of this cost-of-living crisis is a lack of decent employment rights: low-paid workers are particularly vulnerable to having their hours, wages or terms and conditions cut.

Usdaw is clear that workers must be given greater rights and protections, through a New Deal for Workers.

Our New Deal for Workers campaign emerged in 2020 in response to the incredible work of our members during the pandemic. The cost-of-living crisis has created further hardship and that is why we need urgent action on the campaign’s demands.

Usdaw is calling for an immediate increase in the minimum wage to at least £12 per hour for all workers, as a step towards £15.

Every worker deserves a wage they can live on, so we also need to end the rip-off youth rates that allow employers to pay young workers as little as £5.28 per hour. Workers should be paid the same wage for doing the same job, irrespective of age.

A higher minimum wage only tackles low pay if workers get the hours they need, so we need a minimum contract of 16 hours per week for all those who want it, along with a right to a “normal hours” contract.

Short-hours contracts are common, yet many routinely work far more hours than they are contracted to. This creates uncertainty and insecurity for workers because all the flexibility is with the employer.

Those regularly working over their contracted hours, should have those hours guaranteed in their contract if they want them to be. The government also needs to ban zero-hours contracts once and for all.

The pandemic proved that statutory sick pay (SSP) is fundamentally broken. It is not enough to live on and so most people cannot afford to be ill.

SSP needs to be paid from day one, at an individual's normal rate of pay and to all workers.

Alongside this we need a fundamental overhaul and proper funding of universal credit, to ensure our social security system provides a genuine safety net. The pandemic has shown that anybody can suddenly find themselves needing help.

Our members face shocking levels of violence, threats and abuse. That is why we are calling for better legal protection for everyone in Britain, making it a specific offence to abuse public-facing workers, with a sentence that fits the crime.

We also need stronger protections against redundancy and dismissal from day one of employment, alongside proper consultation when new technology is introduced in the workplace and investment in skills so workers can adapt to a changing workplace.

Everyone deserves equal pay and treatment at work. Nobody should be discriminated against due to their gender, race, disability, sexual orientation or other protected characteristics — and these workers make up the majority of our members.

The issues that matter to them are the issues that matter to Usdaw, to our campaigning, organising and bargaining agendas.

The pandemic and cost-of-living crisis have both shown how workers need their unions now more than ever.

We need workers to have a stronger voice at work, through strengthened trade union rights. Workplace reps have an essential role supporting for members.

Usdaw’s New Deal for Workers campaign will only be delivered through well-trained and supported reps in workplaces up and down the country, the foundation of any union.

Usdaw believes that the new deal should apply to all workers, not just those where we have a recognition agreement.

While we will remain committed to delivering improvements through collective bargaining, we can only achieve improvements for all workers through political means.

Only a future Labour government is committed to scrapping anti-union legislation, delivering a new deal for workers and growing trade unionism across the country.

Our New Deal for Workers campaign goals are ambitious and will only be fully achieved through effective workplace organising, high levels of membership — and securing a Labour government that listens to the needs of working people.