The Green Party’s proposal of a £15 per hour minimum wage for all ages has sparked warnings of a fresh surge in youth unemployment in Britain.
As part of a ‘workers charter’ from ‘eco-populist’ leader Zack Polanski, the Left-wing Greens are promising to ‘rebalance’ the relationship betwen workers and employers.
They are vowing to ‘put people before profit’ with new laws to bring in day-one rights on unfair dismissal, and full bans on fire-and-rehire and zero-hours contracts.
The Greens are also calling for a ‘pay guarantee’ with a £15 per hour minimum wage for workers of all ages.
This would be a significant increase to the current National Living Wage of £12.71 per hour for those aged 21 and over.
And it would be even bigger raise to the current National Minimum Wage of £10.85 per hour for those aged 18 to 20, or £8 for those under-18 or on an apprentice wage.
Experts and rival parties warned that equalising minimum wage rates for all ages – at close to the median hourly pay in some parts of Britain – would merely leave more young people on the jobs scrapheap.
They said the Green policy could worsen the current crisis of nearly one million young people in the UK out of work and education – a number that has surged over four times since 2021.
As part of a ‘workers charter’ from ‘eco-populist’ leader Zack Polanski, the Left-wing Greens are promising to ‘rebalance’ the relationship betwen workers and employers
According to the Office for National Statistics, the unemployment rate for 16 to 24-year-olds surged to 16.1 per cent in the three months to December last year – the highest level since early 2015.
It is also now estimated to be higher than the EU average for the first time since records began in 2000.
Senior Tory MP Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, told the Mail: ‘Youth unemployment is already rocketing after Labour’s hikes in taxes and red tape.
‘The last thing the economy needs are these lunatic Green proposals which would cost ordinary people their jobs.
‘It sounds like Green economic ideas are influenced by the drugs they wish to legalise!’
The Centre for Cities think tank also criticised the Greens’ pledge to raise the minimum wage to £15 per hour.
They argued that this is just 53p less than the median hourly pay in Doncaster and 80p less than the median hourly pay in Wigan.
A spokesperson said: ‘Young people in places like these (Sunderland, Southend and Burnley are others) would be first to face any unintended adverse effects on employment associated with raising the living wage.
‘They would be competing in the job market with more-experienced workers paid less than £1 more.’
They added that the National Living Wage is a ‘blunt instrument for dealing with low pay’, with more targeted interventions needed in areas with low average pay and voluntary opt-in wage floor schemes in areas like London, where the cost of living is high.
Ahead of next week’s local elections, Mr Polanski was set to launch his party’s ‘workers charter’ at a May Day rally in Manchester on Friday.
The Green leader said Labour’s Employment Rights Act, which became law in December, was ‘watered down after pressure from corporate lobbyists’.
His party are promising introduce a new Employment Rights Act, which would also include measures on sectoral bargaining.
The Greens also plan to scrap all anti-union and anti-strike laws introduced since 1979.
Mr Polanski said: ‘The reforms introduced by Margaret Thatcher nearly half a century ago began the long march downwards in the balance of power and wealth in our country – from those who produce and do the work to those who profit from it.
‘Successive governments have continued this, and the current Labour Government’s measures on workers’ rights, while an improvement, are weak and have been watered down after pressure from corporate lobbyists.
‘The Greens are the new workers’ party, and we will address the massive imbalance in our workplaces and give control back to workers.’
Labour’s Employment Rights Act was originally going to introduce day-one rights on unfair dismissal, which would allow employees to claim unfair dismissal from the first day of employment.
However, it was eventually amended to reduce the qualifying period from two years to six months.
Fire-and-rehire, when an employer dismisses an employee and then immediately offers them a new contract on less favourable terms, has been restricted but not fully banned under Labour’s legislation.
The Act will make fire-and-rehire an automatic unfair dismissal, unless they meet an exemption for financial difficulties.
On zero-hours contracts, the legislation introduces a duty on employers to offer, at the end of of every reference period, guaranteed hours to qualifying workers that reflect the hours worked in that period.
Some critics argue that these measures fall short of what Labour promised in its manifesto, which was to introduce day-one rights on unfair dismissal, to ban fire-and-rehire, and to end ‘exploitative zero-hours’ contracts.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle insisted Labour’s Act will ‘drag Britain’s outdated employment laws into the 21st century and offer dignity and respect to millions more in the workplace’.
