Thursday, 19 March 2015

The Cornish low-wage economy and how we can fix it


Zero hours contracts enable employers to avoid employment law. To protect employees from unscrupulous employers they should be made illegal. I am proud to have voted for Cornwall Council to pay a living wage to all its employees and to work with suppliers to ensure that they do too. Another issue is that many big businesses will only create low paid, part-time jobs - so people often have to have 2 or 3 jobs to get by. To create a sustainable economy for Cornwall we need to ensure that money circulates here. This means paying more to those living and working in Cornwall and supporting Cornish-based businesses rather than those who employ their managers and pay their corporation tax outside of Cornwall where their head office is and contribute little to the Cornish economy. A powerful Cornish Assembly would have the ability to drive economic development in Cornwall. We need to control our own destiny if we are to address the low wage economy. Waiting for London to do this for us has not worked. To improve the Cornish economy we need to do it for ourselves – but we need the tools to be able to do so.

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