Ed Miliband today vowed stronger action against ruthless bosses who undercut the minimum wage with immigrant labourers crammed 20 to a house.
Writing in the Evening Standard, the Labour leader said he would tackle a “nasty, brutish and short term” migrant-based sub-economy.
“I have heard stories like that from my Doncaster constituency, where Eastern European migrants undercut pay and conditions at a local chicken factory by working for less than the minimum wage for long hours, while sleeping 19 or 20 to a house,” he wrote.
“That’s not good either for those people coming here looking for a better life or for the people who used to do these jobs.” In a speech in London this morning, Mr Miliband sought to reshape Labour’s policies and image on immigration. He admitted the party had been wrong to ignore people’s “legitimate concerns” about pressures on housing, schools and other services.
He said fines for breaching the minimum wage were “set very low” at £5,000, and should be doubled at least. Other measures could include giving councils new powers to enforce the wage rules.
The Labour leader pointed out that only seven firms have been prosecuted for breaching the minimum rate — currently £6.08 for workers aged 21 and over — even though there were many reports of factories paying as little as £4 an hour.
Recruitment firms that only take on foreign labourers should be banned, and existing UK residents must have a fair chance at every job, he added.
But Left-wing Labour MP John McDonnell said: “It sounds like a nuanced version of ‘blame the immigrants for cutting wages’. ” He said the real answer was to strengthen trade unions and build more council homes.
Mr Miliband’s key aim was to apologise to voters who felt Labour had ignored them. Repudiating Gordon Brown’s overheard comment about voter Gillian Duffy in Rochdale during the 2010 election, he said: “Worrying about immigration, talking about immigration, thinking about immigration, does not make them bigots.”
