I am supporting a campaign to strengthen workers’ rights following the launch of a ‘Time For Better Pay’ petition from Usdaw.

St Helens borough has more jobs classified as ‘sales and customer services’, ‘caring, leisure and other service’ and ‘process, plant and machine operatives’ which are more likely to be lower-paid professions.

This means that people in St Helens borough will be more susceptible to receiving poor pay and working under poor conditions.

The petition launched on the .gov website seeks 100,000 signatures to secure a Government response and possible parliamentary debate. Find the petition at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/234531.

Usdaw’s survey of over 10,500 working people about their experiences of low pay, short-hours contracts, and insecure work shows that stronger employment rights are urgently needed.

There are too many hard working people in St Helens borough who are struggling to get by. The Tories are allowing people in work to be paid less than they need for a decent standard of living. These unacceptable standards should be addressed by increasing the minimum wage to £10 per hour for all workers and ending zero hours contracts.