CAMPAIGNERS for the unemployed have called on the Government to speed up plans for a national minimum wage, after claims that some Bolton area employers are offering "poverty pay".

Salford TUC Centre for the Unemployed found one of the jobs advertised in a Job Centre is for an apprentice travel sales consultant at Lunn Poly in Walkden offering £50 per week. But a spokesman there has hit back, claiming the company has been unfairly highlighted.

Other jobs include a hairdresser in Eccles offering £40 per week for a trainee, a car valeter in Bolton earning £60 per week and a screen printer in Salford offering £1.55 an hour for an apprentice.

TUC worker Alec McFadden described the pay rates for the jobs, which are aimed mainly at the 18-25 age group, as a scandal and said the employers were exploiting young people.

He said: "The job at Lunn Poly, although it is for a trainee, requires a considerable degree of responsibility. The employee is responsible for booking holidays and flights.

But a spokesperson for Lunn Poly refuted the criticism. She said: "The £50 a week is not the salary for a travel sales consultant, but a training allowance for a modern apprentice.

"Lunn Poly's modern apprentices are highly valued by the company and are given some of the best training in the travel industry. We have numerous shop managers and many regional sales managers who started their careers as apprentices."

Mr McFadden said: "It is now almost two months since the election and little has changed for thousands of unemployed people in Greater Manchester. They are still being offered the choice of poverty wages or losing benefit.

"What we also still have the scandalous position where the taxpayer is subsidising bad employers because people employed on low wages often have to claim some form of benefit."

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