Low Wages (Hansard, 24 April 1990)

§ 1. Mr. Boyes
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how he intends to raise the number of prosecutions for firms paying below wages council minima.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. Patrick Nicholls)
The policy of the wages inspectorate under all Governments has been to seek compliance with wages council regulations by advice and persuasion and to prosecute only where an offence is deliberate or repeated and the evidence is considered sufficient. There are no plans to change that policy.

§ Mr. Boyes
Is not it a scandal and an outrage that tens of thousands of workers are being paid below the minimum wage in companies such as Superbadge in my constituency? In view of the Minister's remarks, I hope that he will look into that company. The Government have been particularly vindictive in several ways. First, there is now only one inspector for 5,000 workers and there were only nine prosecutions in 1989—[Interruption.]

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. The hon. Member must ask a question, please, not start a debate.

§ Mr. Boyes
On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I started by asking a question.

§ Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman
You did not.

§ Mr. Speaker
The hon. Gentleman did, but hon. Members should seek to limit their questions to one so that more hon. Members have an opportunity to participate.

§ Mr. Boyes
I asked only one question. We should not give way to one hon. Member who shouts silly remarks.
Is not it time that the numbers of prosecutions and inspectors were increased? Is not it time also that low-paid workers were protected by the Government instead of allowing companies to flout the regulations?

§ Mr. Nicholls
The hon. Gentleman is to be complimented on packing a lot of nonsense into a short space of time. Far from there being evidence of widespread under-compliance by employers, even in premises checked by inspectors 96 to 97 per cent. of those employed are being paid in accordance with the law. On prosecution policy, it may be of some comfort for the hon. Gentleman to know that the rate of prosecutions is higher than it was under the Labour Government. If the hon. Gentleman has a particular constituency case, I shall of course be delighted to look into it.

§ Mr. Hind
Will my hon. Friend firmly reject the Labour party's proposal for a statutory minimum wage? Does he agree that that would lead to people on low pay having no jobs at all, the misery of unemployment and all the consequences for families which go with that?

§ Mr Nicholls
My hon. Friend is entirely right. The overwhelming number of studies show that the minimum wage policy advocated by the Labour party would have that effect. The difficulty with Labour Members is that they cannot appreciate the fact that no job is worse than low pay.