"The coronavirus crisis has demonstrated how much we all owe to healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, energy workers and so many others. Despite this, millions of key workers remain underpaid and in insecure work. The nation applauded the efforts of key workers through the peak of the crisis and there is strong public support for ensuring key workers are treated fairly.

The government can directly increase the pay of 6 million key workers by increasing the minimum wage and public sector pay. The government can also put an end to some of the worst excesses of insecure work by banning zero-hours contracts. They must not let key workers down.

The crisis also starkly exposed the huge inequalities faced by workers, especially related to pay, security, safety and voice at work. Unequal impacts have fallen along existing lines of inequality; including class, gender, ethnicity and other inequalities. Key workers who have kept the country running are more likely to be women and more likely to be Black or Minority Ethnic (BME). All workers who have been on the frontline of the crisis need to be rewarded fairly and treated with dignity."

Support: Digital