World News | Britain PM Resists Calls to Extend Worker Wages
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is resisting calls to extend a government program that has paid the wages of millions of workers laid off during the coronavirus lockdown.
London, Sep 2 (AP) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is resisting calls to extend a government program that has paid the wages of millions of workers laid off during the coronavirus lockdown.
Since April, the government has paid 80 per cent of the salaries of furloughed employees. The program has supported almost 10 million workers but is due to end on October 31.
Opposition parties have called for its extention. Scottish National Party lawmaker Ian Blackford says failing to do so would bring “levels of unemployment last seen under (Prime Minister Margaret) Thatcher in the early 1980s.”
Answering questions in the House of Commons, Johnson says the government had spent 40 billion pounds ($53 billion) on the program but continuing it indefinitely would keep workers “in suspended animation.”
Johnson says, “indefinite furlough is just not the answer.” He says the government was helping people with other programs, including a “Kickstart scheme” that will subsidize companies to hire young people. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)