Coronavirus: A story of symptoms and cures

By BYL member -

No one can deny that the virus has changed our society and our way of life. I miss just walking into a Lidl without having to queue and keep two meters apart. But in all seriousness, the virus has exposed a broad range of issues, both in our economy and society as a whole. It has exposed the fact that amongst us, there is another virus. One which there is little to no immunity within our current system. One which has seen vast swathes of people end up in the positions they now face and have been facing for the best part of 40 years. The prevailing economic order has been shown to not be fit for purpose and not built for the needs and interests of the many. We are also witness to a huge collective realisation. That those that were deemed as unskilled only just a few months ago by the likes of Priti Patel simply for the crime of earning less than £30k, are now essential workers and our next course of action economically and socially should be to reflect how essential they are and always have been. All these issues constitute the variety of symptoms our economic system has created. To combat this virus we are going to need more than PPE or social distancing; instead, fundamental change is needed in our society.

Since the 1980s workers in this country have, for the most part, seen a stagnation of their wages. Incomes have not kept up with the cost of living and the sharp rise in private borrowing, mainly through credit cards and overdrafts, has seen a culture of household debt. The combination of both high debt and low pay for many people has created a situation in which many workers are 1 payday away from being completely skint and bankrupt. The pressure on the government to act immediately to help renters was testament to the fact that many workers are not financially secure for at least a month. In one of the world’s richest countries this simply isn’t good enough.

Our economy is also plagued with other epidemics such as job insecurity, with so much bogus self-employment in which companies can hire people and effectively make them company workers with no rights. This means they have no sick pay, no holiday pay, no family leave and are not entitled to the minimum wage.

Moreover, other low paid workers have seen no real improvement in the benefits they would receive from their employer if they needed time off work. We all know sick pay in this country is not enough to live on and many workers are barely entitled to much from their employer if time off is needed.

Many self-employed people and SMEs are also facing insecurity. Many of them will have been facing financial insecurity for some time given their lack of disposal income and the very poor recovery the economy has embarked upon since 2010. Hence the need to defer VAT payments to allow businesses to gain some liquidity (basically more spare money) to stay afloat.

Initially the government should have been implementing a form of UBI (Universal Basic Income) which would have not only saved so many people their jobs but also spared them from the anxiety of financial stress. It would have also been much easier to communicate and implement. However, as a long-term measure we need a more equitable distribution of wealth with workers getting a larger slice of the pie, with higher minimum wages and greater worker representation within companies. They are essential workers after all. A fairer tax system which is reformed in a way that would help relieve the tax burden on small companies. First time small businesses and self employed need to be exempt from tax for a set duration to give them a fighting chance to compete and amass savings. A new workers charter needs to be established with greater enhanced benefits and social security protections such as higher sick pay and more generous sickness benefits and entitlements. Reforms need to be made to rid the scourge of bogus self-employment and zero hours contracts which have caused so much financial insecurity for too many people for too long.

Overall, coronavirus has exposed the pandemic of job insecurity and low pay within our economy. It has shown that the real wealth creators are the ordinary workers. The cleaners, the shelf stackers, the shopworkers, the self-employed, the builders, the nurses, the bin men, the carers and so on. These people keep our nation ticking and, until recently, I believe we have taken them for granted. Without their labour, the economic system would not function. It has also shown that wealth does not trickle down from the rich but bubbles up from all of our labour. Hopefully from this a new economy will emerge that reflects this.