COLIN CAMPBELL: Work is there at a decent rate for those who want to do it
Every day in early January and frequently at other times this winter I passed men doing hard, difficult and unpleasant work in freezing temperatures. They were on construction sites at Charleston and the Bught Park in a snow or frost clad landscape. I was on a bike and that was no fun but I was either going to or coming from the warmth of the Inverness Leisure centre. They were exposed to the elements for hours on end. Their special clothing afforded them some protection but it looked a very tough shift indeed.
So much, I thought as I looked at these hardy grafters, for those who peddle their visions of a "wellbeing society" where the principal concern is ensuring everyone has an agreeable "work-life balance" and can get generously paid for doing whatever they like. Some work is hard, has always been hard, and always will be hard, and there is no fantasy "balance" to be struck around it.
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Another group of workers whose jobs were not primarily governed by their wellbeing I got to know well. They were an alternative set of grafters in a riverside hotel where I worked for a couple of years before and after Covid. They were not exposed to freezing outdoor conditions but they had plenty acquaintance with steaming hot kitchens, relentless demands for fast-paced service, and long energy-sapping shifts at all hours of the day and night.
My labours were confined to being there overnight for a couple of nights a week, so I saw the last people to leave near midnight and the first to arrive at 6am. The early arrivals up before five in the morning in winter with a long, arduous day ahead particularly had my sympathy, but they just got on with it and never complained.
In the hotel, a significant number of people - probably most - were being paid the minimum wage. At the time it was around £8.20 an hour. Whether or not that was a fair reward for their efforts was wide open to question, but I took close note of every increase as it edged upwards. An 80p increase, for example, might not seem a lot to people on salaries well above minimum wage levels, but for recipients doing a 40-hour week it's a pay rise of around £130 a month.
Now the minimum wage under Labour is being elevated to an all-time high of £12.21 an hour. This will make no difference to construction workers because they will be paid more anyway, but in the hotel industry and elsewhere it looks transformative.
The "minimum wage" term itself - which carries implications of workers scrabbling around for peanuts - almost seems redundant. A 40-hour week will now provide a salary of £2000 a month. To some or indeed many pensioners there will be nothing "minimal" about that.
It should also "encourage" - the word in vogue nowadays - people on benefits to take up work.
Decent money is now on offer for anyone in a job. The work and the hours may not be entirely suitable for everyone but the pay people will get is fair and reasonable, and in many places - including Inverness and the wider Highlands - the jobs are there and the work is available.
It may not be entirely agreeable and it may not fit in with everyone's preferred lifestyle, but it's a means to earn money.
In recent times there have been countless reports in this area from hoteliers and other businesses who "can't get staff". This year for the money on offer that problem should be solved. If it isn't the conclusion must be that the benefits system is skewed towards encouraging laziness, skiving, and leeching off others who do contribute to society - no matter how hard, cold or exhausting it is.
