Prime Minister David Cameron made what was billed as his big speech on immigration a few miles east of me yesterday, at the massive JCB factory near Uttoxeter. Headlines stressed the plan to make EU national workers wait at least four years for 'in work' benefits such as Tax Credits and we were all invited to applaud this as a 'good thing', on the grounds that it will reduce 'benefit tourism' and save money on 'welfare' - a further attack in a year that has already seen their entitlement to Tax Credits, Jobseekers Allowance and Housing Benefit significantly cut back.
Today, the headlines are all about 'modern slavery', particularly the plight of exploited workers in agriculture, domestic service and sex work. There are UK citizens among them - often vulnerable due to learning disability or mental health issues - but the majority of those affected appear to be migrants. The two issues are linked: the fear-of-UKIP fuelled policies which have seen access to benefits for EU migrants systematically degraded have contributed to the problem of 'modern slavery' by leaving people already unsure of their rights with still fewer of them.
When politicians of all parties (except the Greens, who don't play this game) talk about 'migrant workers', it's very obvious that they're thinking of an able-bodied, resilient male who can, in the absence of work that pays enough to feed and house him, sleep on a mate's sofa or under a bridge until his luck changes, or hitch a lift back to Victoria Coach Station and thence back to his homeland.
They trust their audience to picture this same worker: if you start seeing vulnerable young men and women instead, under the thumb of illegal gang-masters who take most of their earnings in fees and rent, all the talk of 'fairness' starts to ring hollow. Take away their right to benefits if they leave and they're trapped. Many won't have earned enough to be treated as 'workers' despite labouring on the land from dawn to dusk, so would get nothing if they fled. Domestic and sex workers are in the same desperate predicament, especially if they have dependent children, with no proof of earnings and no NI contributions - and their exploiters will know this and point it out to them.
Similarly, people who have been working legitimately but have reached the end of their benefit entitlement are easy prey.
If this or any other Government were serious about cutting Social Security paid to migrant workers and ending modern slavery, they would realise that the humane way to tackle both is to rigorously enforce payment of the minimum wage (and ideally raise it) and clamp down on exploitative gang-masters. Every £1 in extra wages paid to a migrant worker is, potentially, 41p less paid out in Tax Credits or 65p less housing benefit. The same applies to UK workers too, of course.
Odd then, that since the present Government came to power, only two employers have been prosecuted for not paying the minimum wage; though more have faced 'civil penalties', this is hardly a deterrent.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/22/firms-minimum-wage-not-prosecuted
Contrast the 'get tough' attitude to benefit fraud - claimants can expect to go to Court or prison for deliberate acts and face a financial penalty even for innocent mistakes. Arguably, this is benefit fraud by employers, since the people they underpay will often rely on the state to make up the shortfall, but that's different...
Ditto prosecutions of gang-masters acting illegally: where they do occur, the penalties are again derisory. One is left with the feeling that the Government will do anything to stop migrants allegedly exploiting the system, but is quite happy for the system to exploit migrants.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/14/gangmaster-prosecutions-decline-home-office-hanson-may
Did the Opposition raise either of these issues in response? Not where it was reported, if at all, and since they have been involved in an ugly arms race to be tougher than the Tories, I'm not holding my breath waiting.
