MINISTERS must change Britain’s rigged sick-pay system, which “keeps us in work when we’re ill,” food workers demanded today.

Bakers’ union members gathered in Staffordshire for their annual conference unanimously backed a motion calling for sick pay to match 100 per cent of wages from day one of illness.

Britain’s weekly sick pay rate, currently just £116.75, is among the lowest in Europe and some workers only qualify for it after a three-day waiting period.

Addressing delegates in Stone, food worker Doughie Johnston said: “People are scared when ill to take time off because they will not be able to afford to live.

“When they can’t afford to live, they become even more ill when they worry about their bills. It’s about investing in people; it’s about being a humane society; it’s about supporting all of us.”

Michael Blundred, of the union’s executive council, slammed the “ridiculous” situation, adding: “The system isn’t broken, the system is fixed to keep us in work when we’re sick. It’s totally wrong.”