Members of the left-wing political organisation Momentum have voted for new policy measures that aim to increase workers’ pay significantly while reducing the hours they work.
The radical-left campaign group Momentum has published its ‘policy primary’ results. The voting for these has been open since the 24 March.
The results have provided eight measures that were selected to be used in the pro-Corbynite group’s campaign reform, selected from an initial list of 33.
As a result of the vote, the main proposals were for the current minimum wage of £8.91/hour to be raised to £15/hour, for workers aged 23 and over. This would go hand in hand with a reduction in the working week to 4 days and only 32 hours of work.
The motions also seek to increase the current minimum contract hour numbers to 16 “for all workers that want them,” which ties in with another policy to abolish zero-hour contracts.
https://twitter.com/PeoplesMomentum/status/1379872392680464386
There are a number of firms and other developed countries that have been trialling the four-day working week, which has yielded mixed results. However, none have matched the shortening of working hours with a pay rise.
With the proposals from Momentum, an average 40-hour-week worker on the minimum wage would be paid £124 more per week, with their weekly pay to reach £480, whilst working 8 hours less.
This has been calculated to equate to a one-third pay rise for all minimum-wage workers, who would also have to do one-fifth less work.
Other measures that made it to the ballot include an introduction of a Universal Basic Income, the abolition of the British Monarchy and a strategy of Covid-19 elimination from the Zero Covid coalition. None of them received enough support.
