The first step along that road takes place on Wednesday at the State Opening of Parliament and a King’s Speech that will set out the new Government’s legislative programme for the coming parliamentary term.
Usdaw is hoping to see progress on delivery of the Party’s significant manifesto commitments on issues that the union has long called for in its ‘New Deal for Workers’ and ‘Freedom from Fear’ campaigns, including:
- Making work pay with a new deal for working people that will end poverty pay and tackle insecure employment that is holding so many people back.
- Tackling retail crime with a protection of shop workers’ law, more uniformed police, town centre banning orders for repeat offenders and an end to the £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifting.
Paddy Lillis – Usdaw general secretary says: “We are very much looking forward to Labour’s first King’s Speech and we expect a large and diverse range of parliamentary bills to be announced. After 14 years of Tory austerity, chaos and incompetence, there is a lot to do. We now have a government that will make a real difference to the lives of our members and all workers.
“Usdaw would like to see an employment bill that delivers the promised new deal for workers to make work pay, which includes transformative policies to turn the minimum wage into a genuine living wage, remove discriminatory age bands and deliver new rights to make work more secure.
“The Tories’ dither and delay on retail crime left thousands of shop workers needlessly suffering physical and mental injury. We look forward to Labour delivering a much-needed protection of shop workers’ law; ending the indefensible £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifters, which has effectively become an open invitation to retail criminals; and funding more uniformed officers patrolling shopping areas along with town centre banning orders for repeat offenders.
“Usdaw has campaigned hard for a Labour Government, not just to get rid of the discredited and chaotic Tories, but to turn the country round and get our economy back on track. The election is over, the Labour victory has been achieved, now it is time to get on with the job of delivery.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter/X @UsdawUnion