Name: Jonathan Bartley on workers' rights and basic income
Uploaded: 2017-08-10T15:11:48.000Z
Duration: 1 min 53 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

I’ve just come back from the Trade Unions Congress in Brighton

and it was great to meet so many trade unionists.

We know that around the world where the are vibrant trade unions

there are more equal and happier societies.

And right behind my now are Unison workers,

They’re campaigning to draw attention to their low pay

and the fact that they’re not getting paid during holidays.

We passed a motion at Green Party Conference 10 days ago

which was about sticking up for workers at Hermes, Uber Eats and Deliveroo

who are being squeezed and facing insecure employment.

We're in a new situation in the 21st century, a new age of insecurity,

which we have to address, not just by increasing trade union rights

But we also want this Government to sit up and take notice.

It's clear with the Trade Union Act that the Government is assaulting trade unions.

It doesn't believe in giving control, opportunity and choice to workers

it actually wants to take those things away from them.

We want to give back control and opportunity to workers.

And we're asking for two things from this Government.

The first is to reopen its inquiry into employment rights

and employment practices, that it shelved in 2014.

It has to look at these issues urgently and it has to

come back with concrete proposals to address this situation.

The second is that we want a pilot into the basic income.

The basic income is an idea whose time has surely come.

Around the world many countries are piloting schemes

It would be a regular payment - whether you're in education, out of work or in work.

It would give you choice and opportunity and the chance to start your own business,

It would give you the chance to have some security in very insecure times,

whether you're working for one of these organisations that isn't giving you the rights you deserve.

It's a way of giving choice and opportunity at a time