On 22 December a group of MPs and members of the House of Lords wrote to the Chancellor demanding an increase in Statutory Sick Pay to the level of the Real Living Wage (which the TUC calculates as £346 a week, as against the current £96.35) and abolition of the minimum income threshold to extend it to all workers. The text and signatories of the letter are below.

Those two demands are not all that is necessary to create an adequate sick pay system, but they would be a very good start.

Why is this call coming from a minority of left-wing MPs, and not from the Labour Party itself?

More broadly, what is needed is some sustained campaigning mobilising trade unionists, Labour members and others on this issue.

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22 December 2021

Dear Chancellor,

Increase Statutory Sick Pay to Protect Workers and Slow the Spread of the Virus

The new wave of Covid infections is going to lead to many more workers needing to self-isolate. It is essential that they are given the proper financial support to do so.

Yet nearly two years into this public health crisis Statutory SIck Pay, at only £96.35 a week, is still among the lowest in Europe.

It is so low that it forces workers to choose between putting food on the table and self-isolating when asked to do so to protect their community.

It has been clear since the very start of this pandemic that increasing Statutory Sick Pay to Real Living Wage Levels would significantly increase the number of workers who can afford to self-isolate and would help slow the spread of the virus. Despite that, you and your Government repeatedly refused to act.

Not only is Statutory Sick Pay too low but two million workers do not earn enough to qualify for it. According to the TUC, that includes 647,000 workers who we will all rely on this Christmas in hospitality, retail, and entertainment sectors. They could be left with no income over this festive period.

It is unacceptable that workers are being denied the basic protections they should be getting from your Government. In the interests of protecting public health, reducing pressure on our NHS and limiting the impacts on the wider workforce and economy, we need your government to act with the seriousness that this situation demands.

We ask you to urgently increase Statutory Sick Pay to the Real Living Wage and remove the requirement for recipients to earn over £120 per week so that every single worker who needs to self-isolate is properly supported to do so.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Burgon MP

[plus:] Diane Abbott MP – Tahir Ali MP – Paula Barker MP – Apsana Begum MP – Baroness Blower – Deirdre Brock MP – Baroness Bryan – Dawn Butler MP – Ian Byrne MP – Baroness Chakrabarti – Wendy Chamberlain MP – Jeremy Corbyn MP – Baron Davies – Allan Dorans MP – Peter Dowd MP – Jonathan Edwards MP – Stephen Farry MP – Mary Kelly Foy MP – Neale Hanvey MP – Baron Hendy QC – Kim Johnson MP – Ben Lake – Ian Lavery MP – Emma Lewell-Buck MP – Clive Lewis MP – Carla Lockhart MP – Rebecca Long-Bailey MP – Caroline Lucas MP – Kenny McAskill MP – Andy McDonald MP – John McDonnell MP – Ian Mearns MP – Grahame Morris MP – Kate Osborne MP – Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP – Marie Rimmer MP – Lloyd Russell-Moyle MP – Liz Saville-Roberts MP – Baron Sikka – Zarah Sultana MP – Alison Thewliss MP – John Trickett MP – Karl Turner MP – Claudia Webbe MP – Dr Philippa Whitford MP – Mick Whitley MP – Nadia Whittome MP – Hywel Williams MP – Beth Winter MP – Mohammed Yasin MP

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• Reposted from https://www.workersliberty.org/story/2021-12-23/left-mps-call-sick-pay-boost-campaign-needed

Momentum has published a new timeline for its review of structures. This was the main plank of the Forward Momentum slate which won the National Coordinating Group (NCG) elections in July 2020, but deadlines in September, October, November, and December 2021 (when the process was scheduled to conclude) passed without explanation or comment.

The new timetable is:

January 17: interim proposal published. 3 week window for local groups, affiliates and individual members to submit feedback and suggested amendments (closing February 8)

Late February: Assemblies meet, discuss, factor in feedback and amendments, and prepare final proposals

March: Assemblies present proposals to the NCG at a special March meeting, with the NCG able to suggest amendments or prepare counter proposals to go to an all-member ballot. The Assemblies must meet once to consider any amendments from the NCG

Late March: all member ballot

2022: all changes put into place

No-one much seems to know how the “Momentum Assemblies” are working, if at all. It is not clear whether the “interim proposal” is a single option (selected from discussion so far how, and by whom?) or a range of options, and whether the final all-member ballot will be a take-it-or-leave-it vote on a single option or a choice between a range.

We have published:

A charter for Momentum democracy

and

two simple proposals for the current democracy review – democratic regional networks, and a sovereign annual conference.

Links and information from the meeting:

https://www.healthcampaignstogether.com/sosnhs.php – new “SOS NHS” campaign which Keep Our NHS Public is organising with others

https://yorkmix.com/video-and-pix-staff-burnout-and-everybody-struggling-midwives-speak-out-at-york-rally/ – Labour MP for York Central supporting midwives and speaking at demo

https://www.peoplescovidinquiry.com/ – People’s Covid Inquiry

https://www.facebook.com/CareAndSupportWorkersOrganise – Care and Support Workers Organise

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eYRp6Xw-J_YskXx_4TlvVqhy4Dv87QLghZoJ2GTWIro/edit – More info on CaSWO

https://act4inclusion.org/ – Act for Inclusion, “campaigning for all social support, independent living and care services to be brought back into public ownership and out of the market economy”

https://nacsils.co.uk/ – National Care Support and Living Service

https://medium.com/@ourcommonendeavour/the-nhs-pay-campaign-where-we-are-and-where-we-need-to-go-5ebe1359587a – the NHS pay campaign: thoughts from Edd Mustill

NOTES

1)            The JustEat couriers in Sheffield, who are organised in the IWGB, have been threatened with a 24% pay cut on most of the deliveries they do, from 6 December.

2)            The couriers have been striking from 6 December

RESOLVES

1) To advertise our support for this strike

2) To make a donation of £_____ to the IWGB Couriers and Logistics Branch strike fund

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Strike fund: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/strike-hardship-fund-iwgb-couriers-logistics-branch

Please sign this appeal at

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSmMhYXPVQa-lcB9hijhA2I_gb0t0Ff20siTVNuSEEvb51sg/viewform?usp=sf_link

We demand the release of Kashmiri human rights activist Khurram Parvez.

Parvez was arrested on 22 November under India’s draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. His organisation, the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition for Civil Society, has a long record exposing human rights abuses by the state and others, including extra-judicial executions, disappearances, use of landmines, torture and sexual violence. In the last two years, since the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s autonomy, its work has been made much, much more difficult.

The World Organisation Against Torture says it is “deeply concerned about the high risk of torture while [Parvez is] in custody”.

We stand in solidarity with the struggle for human rights and democracy in Kashmir and across India. We call for the immediate release of Khurram Parvez and other jailed human rights defenders in Kashmir.

Second of LLI’s series of meetings seeking to link the Labour left with labour-movement and left campaigns: Saturday 18 December, 4:30pm to 6pm.

Zoomlink https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89987346975 or http://bit.ly/lli-hsc

Speakers include:

• Becky Talbot, March With Midwives https://www.facebook.com/groups/463781921584006

• John Puntis, Keep our NHS Public https://keepournhspublic.com/

• Alison Treacher, Care and Support Workers Organise (CasWO!) https://twitter.com/CaSWO_

• Edd Mustill, NHS Workers Say No! (Edd writes: some background to the [NHS pay] campaign and some personal views on where we should be going next: https://medium.com/@ourcommonendeavour/the-nhs-pay-campaign-where-we-are-and-where-we-need-to-go-5ebe1359587a)

NHS waiting lists were at 5.8 million in mid-November, before winter really started and before Omicron. Part of the reason is Covid impacts, but the defining fact is that the public health grant has been cut by 24% on a real-terms per capita basis since 2015/16: https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/charts-and-infographics/why-greater-investment-in-the-public-health-grant-should-be-a-priorityAt the same time incremental privatisation of the NHS – conversion of large parts of it to a public “logo” and commissioner of private services – has increased, and the Health and Social Care Bill currently in Parliament seeks to push that process further: https://www.the-pda.org/health-campaigns-together-briefing-on-the-health-and-social-care-bill/

The government’s proposals for social care will mean increased costs for many poorer families: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/nov/18/six-in-10-elderly-care-users-in-england-set-to-lose-out-from-costs-cap

They will leave untouched the long-term privatisation and subordination to profit of social care: https://lowdownnhs.info/analysis/long-read/the-history-of-privatisation-second-in-a-series-by-john-lister/

Both NHS workers and care workers face huge staff shortages and squeezes on their real wages. Over 100,000 job vacancies are unfilled in social care https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/adult-social-care-workforce-data/Workforce-intelligence/publications/national-information/The-state-of-the-adult-social-care-sector-and-workforce-in-England.aspx and the median hourly pay for care workers is only pennies above the legal minimum wage https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/adult-social-care-workforce-data/Workforce-intelligence/publications/Topics/Pay-rates.aspx. The official NHS job vacancy count was 94,000 in June 2021 https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey/april-2015—june-2021-experimental-statistics, and NHS real wages are well below what they were in 2010 https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/chart-of-the-week-real-terms-nhs-staff-pay-from-2010-to-2020

The Police Bill has now completed its process in the House of Lords, with new amendments added by the government. It will return to the Commons in January 2022.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill poses a dire threat to the right to protest and campaign, including the rights of workers and trade unions; to human rights in the criminal justice system; and to people suffering discrimination and oppression, particularly Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.

The new amendments from the government would bring in jail sentences of up to 51 weeks for offences like obstructing a highway. These are aimed at environmental protesters, and could also hit trade-union battles.

This bill sits alongside a raft of other authoritarian, anti-democratic legislation – on the right to vote, immigration, judicial reviews – and threats to even further restrict the right to strike.

The Bill will be returning to the House of Commons in January 2022. The labour movement must speak up vocally and mobilise its weight to defeat or at least mitigate it. We resolve to promote and mobilise for protests against this bill.

We call for withdrawal of the Bill and for repeal of other earlier restrictions on the right to protest, including all anti-trade union laws.

We call on the trade union and Labour Party leaderships to speak out, sound the alarm and call people onto the streets.

If the bill passes we call for unions and Labour Parties to stand in solidarity with those prosecuted and to help fund legal defences.

Activists supporting the Sheffield couriers’ strike have sent us this model motion:

This branch/CLP

NOTES
1) The JustEat couriers in Sheffield, who are organised in the IWGB, have faced a 24% pay cut from 6 December on most of the deliveries they do

2) The couriers have been striking from 6 December, with the strikes spreading to other towns such as Chesterfield

RESOLVE

1) To advertise our support for this strike
2) To make a donation of £___  to the IWGB Couriers and Logistics Branch strike fund
3) To invite a speaker from the campaign to a future meeting

• Donations via https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/strike-hardship-fund-iwgb-couriers-logistics-branch