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Industry and the Environment

I certainly accept my hon. Friend’s congratulations. The minimum wage was introduced with great deftness. The Low Pay Commission ensured that its introduction did not lead to a loss of jobs in vulnerable industries, and as a result we have been able to bring the minimum wage up to £5.05 this October and £5.35 next October. Against all the dire predictions and warnings, we ensured that the minimum wage was introduced, and we can still say that people not only have rights at work, but have work to go to, where they can exercise those rights. That is a crucial element of our approach. We introduced the right to membership of a trade union, and equal treatment for part-time employees and those on fixed-term contracts. We have increased paid maternity leave from 18 weeks in 1997 to 26 weeks, with 39 weeks to follow in relation to the Bill announced in the Gracious Speech. We have almost doubled the rate of statutory maternity pay from £60 in 1997 to £106 today. We have slashed the qualifying period for additional maternity leave from two years to six months, benefiting 350,000 mothers every year. We have given parents of young and disabled children the right to request flexible working. In 2003 adoptive parents, who received no help whatever, despite the fact that society is seeking to take children out of institutions and place them with families, became entitled to the same maternity and paternity leave as natural parents.