Unemployment appears as if it is being used as a “deliberate measure to keep pay down, and to keep people scared”, according to the TUC’s leader-in-waiting, Frances O’Grady.
In an interview with the Guardian, she said that there was “a fair bit of evidence” that the country’s lengthening dole queues could be part of a calculated political move.
“There was certainly a strong view in the 1980s, not just among trade unions, but also amongst a number of intellectuals and commentators, that unemployment was being used as a deliberate measure to keep pay down, and to keep people scared,” O’Grady pointed out.
As long as people’s number one worry was whether they were “going to have a job in the morning, then they are less likely to resist unfair changes, or unfair treatment, or cuts in real pay at work”, she continued.
“I think we do legitimately have to ask why the government isn’t taking action to create decent employment for young people, when the evidence is that, if you don’t do that, you really are going to pay a very high price,” O’Grady added.
But the Department for Work and Pensions dismissed the accusations that youth unemployment was a deliberate policy as “utterly ridiculous” and “utterly laughable”.
Underemployment
“The government is determined to tackle youth unemployment: the Youth Contract will provide nearly half a million new opportunities for 18 to 24 year-olds and is backed by almost £1 billion of funding. We support the creation of jobs, be they full- or part time,” a spokesperson said.
Earlier this week, an analysis of official employment figures across the UK conducted by the TUC revealed that more than 10% of workers were currently underemployed, with the number that would like to boost the number of hours they worked or move from part- to full-time employment having risen from one million in 2008 to 3.3 million today.
The worst affected groups were women (one in eight), those in low-skilled jobs such as farm workers and security guards (one in five) and young people (one in five).
But O’Grady pointed out that the increasingly part-time nature of the labour market meant that it was becoming increasingly difficult to unionise people. “If you were very cynical, you might think it was a deliberate strategy,” she said.
O’Grady, who will become the union umbrella organisation’s first female general secretary later this year when incumbent Brendan Barber steps down, likewise accused the coalition government of targeting women with its austerity measures.
“You’d be forgiven for thinking that this was part of a ‘back to the kitchen sink’ campaign. When you look at what’s happening, with women being hit hardest by job losses, service cuts, threats to take away employment rights, pay depression and rising bills and lack of childcare…you could be forgiven for thinking there is a plan there,” she said.
