Member

I am pleased in many ways that the discussion has focused so much on part-time workers. I think that overall, in both Houses we have tended to overlook the change in the character of part-time work. The noble Lord, Lord Macpherson, who was sitting on the independent Benches, expressed a Treasury view that is terribly outdated, that part-time work is essentially the world of very wealthy people who work only a limited number of hours—“highly-paid workers” was his expression, I believe. But this is now the employment pattern for so many people who are on very low wages: the significantly disadvantaged; students; people with serious carer responsibilities—we can keep on going down the list. When we talk about diversity, which I think matters, this is very often the entry into work for people who have come from ethnic minority communities that have an overtendency to be in the disadvantaged group.