McDonnell: We’ll give gig workers rights
Website highlights modern poverty on Orwell’s Road
MILLIONS of workers in the gig economy will be given rights such as sick pay and parental leave under a Labour government, John McDonnell has announced.
The Shadow Chancellor yesterday said the move would offer them protection against unfair dismissal. In a speech to the TUC Congress in Manchester he slammed the Government’s Taylor Report into employment for “ignoring” trade unions.
His plans were criticised by Chancellor Philip Hammond and think-tanks. The CBI’s Josh Hardie said the “outdated” ideas were fuelled by “ideological hostility to business”.
A UNION chief hailed the Daily Mirror as one of working-class Britain’s “great institutions” as we launched our Wigan Pier Project website last night.
The site chronicles our 18-month trek exposing modern-day poverty as we retraced George Orwell’s route in his book The Road to Wigan Pier. Steered by Ros Wynne-Jones, Andy Stenning and Claire Donnelly, it visited cafes, shelters, community centres, churches, mosques and foodbanks in 14 towns and cities.
And the stories we heard – including people struggling on zerohour contracts or living in squalid housing – are now collected on the interactive site, along with video and www.wiganpierproject.com photos. At the launch at Manchester’s People’s History Museum, on the fringe of the TUC Congress, TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The Road to Wigan Pier has been a vital project.
“The Daily Mirror’s reporting has exposed the devastating human impact of cuts since 2010.”