HERE in Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, we know all about low pay and poor working conditions. The average wage in Cornwall is some 20 per cent below the national average.

Over the last 14 years there has been a massive rise in zero-hours contracts and, more recently, the appalling practice of ‘fire and rehire’ which I have long campaigned against. This practice involves workers being laid off, only to be rehired immediately but under poorer working conditions.

As someone who has worked in business for over 30 years before I became an MP, I have never really understood the economics of exploiting workers in a modern 21st century economy. The most productive businesses I ever worked in, were those where workers were respected, fairly paid and where the work-life balance was an important part of the company culture.

Frankly, happy workers work harder and don’t leave. Obviously this places an important emphasis on hiring the right people in the first place. But as far as I’m concerned, any business, or political party for that matter, is pretty stuffed if it gets its recruitment consistently wrong!

In Cornwall, the concept of ‘in-work poverty’ was barely heard of 14 years ago and yet today more than 40 per cent of households claiming Universal credit have at least one adult in full time employment. Like the housing market, the water utilities and the railways, the employment market in the UK is broken.

The good news is that like the housing market, the water utilities and the railways, this Labour government has a plan to fix it. We have brought forward legislation for an Employment Rights Bill and a plan to make work pay.

In my opinion it is one of the most exciting pieces of legislation in the new government’s programme and will transform the working lives of thousands of people across Cornwall.

Included in the Bill is: the banning of exploitative zero-hours contracts and unscrupulous ‘fire and rehire’ practices; tackling low pay by taking into account the cost-of-living, when setting the minimum wage; removing discriminatory age bands that see younger people paid less for doing the exactly the same job as older people; strengthening statutory sick pay, removing the lower earnings limit for all workers and cutting out the waiting period before sick pay kicks in; and establishing rights to bereavement and parental leave from day one.

These are just some of the reforms that represent the biggest boost to pay and productivity in the workplace in a generation, ensuring that economic growth benefits working people.

Some in our community disillusioned with politics or looking for simple answers to all our social woes often claim that Labour has lost touch, that somehow we don’t represent the working class anymore. If you know anyone like that, mention just a couple of the key elements of Labour’s new Employment Rights Bill to them.

The Labour Party has, is and always will be the party of the working man and woman. We were elected on a promise to deliver a programme of change for working people. That’s exactly what we are doing.

Perran Moon

Labour MP for Camborne and Redruth