Paddy Lillis – Usdaw general secretary says: “Young workers can be disproportionately impacted by issues at work. Thanks to Usdaw’s campaigning and a Labour Government delivering, we can see clear changes which will have a positive impact on the lives of young workers. These include better sick pay provisions, removal of age-discriminatory pay bandings, tackling sexual harassment in the workplace and protecting retail workers from threats, abuse and violence.
“Many of our young members will have personal experience of these issues. Working unsocial shifts, being unable to serve age-restricted goods and being seen as an easy target for customers can all impact young workers. With the changes in employment rights coming through, there has never been a better time to talk to young workers about the benefits of joining the union.
“I’d like to thank all our members, reps and officials who are organising events this week, highlighting the all-year-round work Usdaw does to deliver for members and improve workers’ lives. I hope these events are a success and together we can continue to campaign so that all young workers have a better experience of work.”
Supporting young workers - what politics can achieve: Decisions made by politicians affect all of us, in and outside the workplace. Usdaw’s campaigns are winning new rights for members:
- Low Pay: A commitment from Government to remove discriminatory age bands from the minimum wage so every adult worker receives the full rate.
- Insecure Hours: The Employment Rights Bill will introduce rights to: a guaranteed-hours contract, reasonable notice of shifts, and payment for cancelled, moved or curtailed shifts.
- Sexual Harassment: Employers will be required to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment and to tackle harassment by third parties, such as customers.
- Threats, Abuse and Violence: The Government is going to introduce a specific offence of assaulting a shop worker, enact new powers to ban offenders from town centres and fund 13,000 more neighbourhood police officers.
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
Usdaw Young Workers: www.usdaw.org.uk/campaigns/young-workers/
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion