by Cary Gee
TEN years after the introduction of the national minimum wage, MPs will today (Friday) hear the second reading of the Employment Opportunities Bill.
Introduced by Christchurch Tory MP Christopher Chope, who as a junior minister in Margaret Thatcher’s Government drafted the ill-fated poll tax legislation, the bill offers employers an opt-out from paying employees the minimum wage – £5.73 an hour – which would effectively abolish the mandatory minimum wage.
Mr Chope claims his Private Member’s bill will restore the “right to work” in a recession, a claim dismissed by former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, who is leading a campaign to defeat the bill (see pages 10-11).
Opponents of the bill, who fear it has the potential to return millions of low-paid workers to poverty wages for years to come, believe that despite its lack of official support from Tory leader David Cameron, it signifies a renewed era of attacks on the poorest in society and is a sign of things to come under any future Conservative administration. Mr Chope has said “it should be perfectly possible for an employee to agree to work for £4.82”.
The bill also calls for all public sector jobs to be advertised as widely as possible to end “a magic circle” of friends and acquaintances who are in prime position to apply for vacancies when they arise.
Interestingly, nine of the 11 Tory MPs backing the bill employ their wives on parliamentary pay scales, including Mr Chope, whose wife is also his secretary.
