Browse content similar to 28/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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National Good evening. An investigation by this programme has | :00:00. | :00:17. | |
uncovered evidence of a black market trade in cheap migrant labour. Our | :00:18. | :00:21. | |
undercover filming discovered workers from Eastern Europe being | :00:22. | :00:24. | |
paid ?40 cash or even less per day, lower than the minimum wage. The | :00:25. | :00:30. | |
Business Secretary, Vince Cable, has promised to act against employers | :00:31. | :00:40. | |
breaking the law. Every day on some streets in London, | :00:41. | :00:45. | |
there are people, many Eastern European, waiting to be offered work | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
as builders or casual labourers. But are they paid at least the minimum | :00:52. | :00:56. | |
wage? To find out, we asked two Romanian workers to go undercover. | :00:57. | :01:02. | |
Both carried a hidden camera. While waiting for work, they heard others | :01:03. | :01:08. | |
talk about low wages. TRANSLATION: My boss was paying me ?37.50 a day | :01:09. | :01:15. | |
full op TRANSLATION: I worked from 9:30am till four for ?10. Then one | :01:16. | :01:20. | |
of our two Romanians was offered work moving mattresses in north | :01:21. | :01:24. | |
London. His pay at the end of that day? ?40 for a seven`hour day with | :01:25. | :01:35. | |
only a five minute break works out at ?5.71 an hour, and the national | :01:36. | :01:44. | |
minimum wage of ?6.31 an hour. It was basically, do that, do that, do | :01:45. | :01:50. | |
that, go away. Then our second Romanian is offered a week's work in | :01:51. | :01:56. | |
Birmingham, but the man who is hiring does not want to pay him very | :01:57. | :02:07. | |
much. He is driven more than 100 miles, put to work at the back of a | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
shop and paid ?40, which for nine hours' work comes to about ?4.70 an | :02:12. | :02:19. | |
hour. And what does the government think of such low wages? It is a | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
serious breach of the law. I don't know the details, but it must be | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
investigated. It is our aim to drive this not just off the streets of | :02:31. | :02:34. | |
London, but throughout the country. The campaigning group Migration | :02:35. | :02:39. | |
Watch says such practices are driving down wages for all builders. | :02:40. | :02:44. | |
The influx of migrants from Eastern Europe has driven down wages in that | :02:45. | :02:50. | |
sector. Jamal Sayeed says he agreed to pay our labourer ?40 for a single | :02:51. | :02:57. | |
job of plastering only, and says he did not work nine hours. Our secret | :02:58. | :03:04. | |
recording, though, suggests he did. Our political editor, Tim Donovan, | :03:05. | :03:08. | |
joins us now from Westminster. Is this situation likely to improve or | :03:09. | :03:11. | |
worsen now that Romanians and Bulgarians have full access to the | :03:12. | :03:19. | |
labour market? It is impossible to say. There are too many variables | :03:20. | :03:26. | |
and it is too early to draw any links or understand the relationship | :03:27. | :03:30. | |
between people working off the book is, the people we see mysteries of | :03:31. | :03:35. | |
north London, and linking that with those Bulgarians and Romanians who | :03:36. | :03:37. | |
are no longer restricted from working here legally since January | :03:38. | :03:42. | |
the 1st. On the face of it, the fact that they can now work here legally | :03:43. | :03:46. | |
should reduce the numbers of them working off the books because there | :03:47. | :03:50. | |
will be legitimate employment for them here. They will be paying | :03:51. | :03:54. | |
national insurance and taxes. On the other hand, there may be more people | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
coming and looking for work and not finding it officially, and then they | :04:01. | :04:05. | |
have to work for cash, or they have a job and lose it, and instead of | :04:06. | :04:08. | |
being able to claim benefits, they will then need cash for that reason. | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
Labour and the Conservatives think the wave to tackle this is by more | :04:14. | :04:19. | |
enforcement against employers who employs a low the minimum wage, and | :04:20. | :04:27. | |
putting up vines. `` finds. The government has unveiled a new | :04:28. | :04:30. | |
training which it hopes will ease overcrowding on one of the country's | :04:31. | :04:33. | |
busiest commuter routes. The larger carriages will carry hundreds of | :04:34. | :04:36. | |
thousands of passengers across the Thameslink network. | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
Thameslink commuters heading home tonight on one of the busiest | :04:40. | :04:44. | |
stretches of railway in Europe. It's 2014! Train services seem to have | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
been stuck in the 1970s for a long time. They are pretty awful, dirty, | :04:50. | :05:00. | |
old, cold. Not good. Is this the answer, the new Thameslink trains, | :05:01. | :05:04. | |
part of a ?6.5 billion upgrade of the north`south route? There will be | :05:05. | :05:10. | |
more space, they will be longer and they will also be used on new links | :05:11. | :05:14. | |
into Cambridgeshire, Kent and Sussex. There'll be the ability to | :05:15. | :05:17. | |
put a huge extra capacity by having more trains going through central | :05:18. | :05:22. | |
London during peak hours. It will benefit commuters both in and out of | :05:23. | :05:26. | |
London. It is promised these trains will deliver 40% more seats serving | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
the capital. But before you get carried away about this commuting | :05:32. | :05:34. | |
nirvana, there will be some disruption, particularly at London | :05:35. | :05:36. | |
Bridge as they reconfigure that station. Community groups say the | :05:37. | :05:44. | |
frequency of some services will be cut during that work, but operators | :05:45. | :05:50. | |
say it will be worth the wait. We have to rebuild the access to the | :05:51. | :05:53. | |
station to make the Thameslink programme work and allow us to | :05:54. | :05:56. | |
deliver the 24 trains per hour service. Commuters have seen years | :05:57. | :06:03. | |
of carriages getting more crowded and fares going up. The new trains | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
will be rolled out in two years' time. For these passengers, any | :06:09. | :06:09. | |
improvements are long overdue. Now the weather. Is it going to get | :06:10. | :06:25. | |
cold? It is tomorrow. It will feel much colder because of an easterly | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
breeze. At the moment, we still have showers. There is a possibility that | :06:30. | :06:35. | |
some of the rain might produce a few snowflakes instead from some of the | :06:36. | :06:42. | |
cloud. This evening, this has been the radar picture so far. We have | :06:43. | :06:47. | |
seen showers being pushed in by the southerly wind. It is a concern in | :06:48. | :06:51. | |
the Surrey, Sussex and Kent areas that still have some floodwater. | :06:52. | :06:55. | |
Through the night, those showers continue, some of them heavy. The | :06:56. | :07:05. | |
wind continues. Still some showers around tomorrow, merging into longer | :07:06. | :07:08. | |
spells of rain, the wind heading east. Behind that, there could be a | :07:09. | :07:15. | |
few snowflakes. It will feel chilly in the afternoon. It will warm up | :07:16. | :07:20. | |
Friday, but there will more rain again. | :07:21. | :07:22. | |
That's it for tonight. We are back from 6.30 tomorrow morning in | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
Breakfast. From all the late team, have a very good night. | :07:27. | :07:30. |