FOR young workers in Britain, a change of government could offer a much-needed reset — a chance to sort out the basic issues: our low wages and wage inequality, our crumbling education system and national infrastructure, our country’s complicity in war and genocide, and the pressing need for a just transition to deal with the climate crisis.
 
Materialists understand that only a Labour government can do the job. But will Keir Starmer deliver as prime minister? Don’t hold your breath. An incoming Labour government will have to be pushed every step of the way to fulfil its promises and to go further to deliver what we need.
 
The Labour manifesto has made a few positive commitments such as ending zero-hour contracts and fire-and-rehire. However, these are tied to a promise to consult with business which could lead to the policies being watered down. We need better from a Labour government.
 
We need an end to the systematic wage discrimination that denies many young workers a “living wage,” with 18 to 20-year-olds only being entitled to £8.60 and under-18s (or apprentices of any age) only getting £6.40 per hour for the same work as a 21-year-old employee.

Workers of all ages are feeling the brunt of the cost of living (or cost of profits) crisis, and those under 21 or in apprenticeships don’t get cheaper rent or cheaper food to compensate for the shortfall.

Young workers demand investment in our childcare and education system. For young parents, childcare is often unavailable or prohibitively expensive. We need fully funded universal childcare, with properly paid caring staff.
 
As the National Young Members Forum Motion 17 (Maternity Pay and Related Parental Rights) highlights, Britain’s statutory maternity pay entitlement is among the lowest in Europe and this leaves young women in particularly precarious situations. Government must act to safeguard the financial independence of young women and ensure that working-class families do not fall into poverty as a result of having a child.

This also means scrapping the two-child benefit cap, something the Labour Party had promised until last year and which is supported even by arch-Tory Suella Braverman. The Labour Party leadership has kept up the blatant lie that there is “no money left” to do so, but has managed to find the money for an expanded military budget. This is simply not good enough.
 
For young workers who are students, as well as those seeking to retrain or continue in education, we need better than the current fees system that leaves both students and education institutions mired in debt. We need fully funded public education at all levels, free at the point of study and available to all who want it.