Despite a string of government announcements millions of mothers and fathers will be sitting at their kitchen table this evening doubly fearful.
They will, of course, be deeply worried about their loved ones catching the coronavirus.
But they will also be anxious about losing their jobs and family income.
In the past 24hrs I have listened to workers in tears as they’re told their job is going; mothers – already laid off – struggling to feed their children and pay the rent ; and charities and food banks at a loss to know how they’ll cope.
And I’ve heard from workers, who have been sent home as a result of Boris Johnson ’s sensible instruction to self- isolate, but who are then told the most they’ll receive is £94-a-week sick pay.
The Chancellor’s £20 billion cash injection on Tuesday was supposed to end the apprehension.
But even the £330 billion of credit he has offered companies has not lifted the threat of mass redundancies – across airlines, pubs, restaurants, hotels and tourism.
(Image: PA)
Temporary closures have been announced from Nissan, Vauxhall to Rolls Royce and BMW, as the global supply chain breaks down – and its estimated that already 200,000 jobs have gone.
So why are there fast-rising redundancies when support seems on offer?
Because there was one missing element in the Chancellor’s statement: money was guaranteed to businesses without securing any agreement that they keep their workers on.
The Chancellor says he’ll devise a jobs package soon but France, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Spain Italy and New Zealand are already days ahead, making job protection a condition of their financial injection.
It is absolutely right for the Government to give companies loans at zero interest rates, rates holidays and tax deferrals and, as on Tuesday, grants to ensure they have cash flow.
In a crisis, governments have to act – but everyone knows that the play-safe advice from accountants will be to balance the books even if that means making workers redundant.
Take airlines now seeking a £7.5billion subsidy but still cutting jobs, Virgin Atlantic giving their workers the ‘choice’ that is no real choice at all: accept redundancy or take eight weeks’ UNPAID leave.
And that’s not the end of the jobless story.
For if lay -offs hit us this month – and unemployment rises and newly workless families have no money to spend – then a second wave of redundancies will start to bite and, as thousands of businesses close, bring havoc to working families.
That’s why the whole of Britain should be saying this morning: what about the workers?
It need not – and should not – be this way.
We should send employers the same message the Labour Government sent in the financial crisis of 2009: Do not fire your workers. Lets find a way to keep them on – ready for the recovery.
After all, it’s not any employee’s fault that the world economy has seized up.
Workers are not to blame when a virus that emanated from a food stall in a Chinese marketplace puts lives and livelihoods at risk thousands of miles away.
(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
And here in Britain we already know how to save jobs in an emergency.
In the global financial crisis of 2008 my greatest worry was not for the banks but for millions of workers and their families.
So, as well as ensuring businesses had cash to pay their bills, we took direct action, incentivised companies to keep workers on and subsidised wages where workers were on short time – all backed up by bolder measures to prevent mortgage repossessions.
Britain avoided what people feared most: a return of the ‘mass unemployment’ of the 1980s.
Unemployment rose by 1.75 per cent but because we made job retention a priority.
UK unemployment peaked briefly at 7.9 per cent, while in both Europe and America, unemployment went above 10 per cent – and there millions more jobs were lost.
It is time for Boris Johnson to act.
Most countries, like the UK, are making provision for those who get sick or are sent home.
But UK sick pay should be available to all and at a decent rate, not just £94.25.
No one should be trapped between the fear of losing their income if they take the Government advice to stay home and the fear of their family catching the virus from them going to work.
(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
America is considering mailing $1,000 – around £ 850 – to every family and Italy is giving €500 each to their self employed.
It may sound attractive but President Trump doesn’t need the $1,000 nor do America’s millionaires.
It is far better – as the trades unions will explain – to offer wage support to those whose jobs are on the line – and – even if the epidemic lasts three months – those in real need should receive a multiple of that 1,000.
Sweden, like German and Austria, is already subsidising a shorter working week, their government halving the costs with employers so that workers keep 90 per cent of their wages.
Norway has promised employees 20 days of full pay and guaranteed the self-employed 80 per cent of recent income. And French workers will enjoy free rent (or mortgages) and free gas and electricity with a promise that no company will go under.
If their employer pays the first 25 per cent of their wages Denmark will pay the other 75 per cent up to a maximum of just under £30,000 a year.
(Image: PA)
“If there’s a big drop in activity and production is halted, we understand the need to send home employees. But we ask you: Don’t sack them,” PM Mette Frederiksen has said.
Denmark has a five million population: ours is over 65million. That 70,000 Danish figure is the equivalent of supporting nearly one million jobs in the UK.
Retaining people in jobs makes sense. Today governments can borrow more cheaply than a decade ago.
A 10% increase in debt-GDP increases annual interest costs by just over 0.1% of GDP.
Of course, there’s a cost to the Treasury but if there are millions out of work it loses their income tax, national insurance and VAT payments.
I am also struck by how much we are fighting this new war using only the weapons of the last war.
For what about the new jobs that we can encourage from stimulating the online economy; deep-cleaning our buildings; and, in particular, investing in our still gravely under-financed NHS.
Companies need to manufacture more ventilators. Hospitals need more acute beds.
Food banks need cash help.
The NHS workforce – our heroic frontline in the fight against the virus – need more back up support – just as they urgently need us to fund guaranteed testing, the best protective clothing and proper remuneration.
This crisis HAS already brought out the best in the British people – like the Scots shopkeeper couple who are delivering to every old person locally a free pack they’ve painstakingly brought together of face masks, anti- bacterial gel and cleaning wipes.
But Ministers who are, I fear, still behind the coronavirus curve, must get ahead of events to stay in control.
Last night the UK hospitality industry said a jobs plan was needed within 24 hours.
My message to Ministers is urgent: If we are not to lose jobs in their tens of thousands, you must act before Friday at 5pm.
