28/01/2014 BBC London News


28/01/2014

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 28/01/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

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.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS