The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has launched a manifesto for recovery, calling for a national minimum wage freeze for younger workers.
In its “pre-election manifesto for work”, Platform 2010 – A Recovery That Works, the organisation called for an absolute freeze of the national minimum wage for younger workers, saying it would protect them as the UK starts to emerge from recession.
The total number of young people out of work has edged towards the one million mark (932,000) in the three months to October 2009.
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John Philpott, chief economic advisor, CIPD said: “We strongly welcome the steps the government has taken to avoid the creation of a “lost generation” in the UK. But freezing the national minimum wage for younger workers is necessary to ensure that all this good work is not fatally undermined just as the economy begins to recover.”
The CIPD has also called for the removal of the default retirement age, the extension of the job guarantee scheme to long-term unemployed people aged over 50, and an efficiency review of all quangos.