Chancellor Gordon Brown is facing pressure not to water down proposals for a national minimum wage.
TUC general secretary John Monks warned the Treasury yesterday not to try to exempt workers under the age of 25 from the full #3.60 an hour now set to be proposed.
CBI director-general Adair Turner revealed that even his organisation was not in favour of ''blanket exemptions'' below the age of 25.
However, Mr Turner warned on BBC 1's On The Record that the lower rate had to be set at a level which did not create youth unemployment, and raised the prospect of part of the new provisions being phased in.
He warned: ''I think it is vitally important that, in setting this minimum wage, we don't do anything which creates youth unemployment.''
There has been speculation that the Treasury was considering exempting workers up to the age of 25 from a full, proposed minimum wage of #3.60 an hour.
But Mr Monks told On The Record that Ministers should accept proposals from the Low Pay Commission for an hourly rate of #3.60 for the over-21s and #3.20 for those aged 18 to 21.
The TUC boss called on the Government not to ''cherry-pick'' from the package as a whole and warned that his organisation would fight any such changes.
He said: ''There seem to be some indications that some people in the Treasury are unhappy, particularly about the #3.20 rate for the under-21s.
''We hope very much that they stick by the report that's coming out.''
Mr Monks added: ''We are very keen that, even though we don't like aspects of the report, that there's no cherry picking, picking and choosing by the Government.''
If that happened, the TUC would fight it, Mr Monks warned. ''We certainly will campaign against it,'' he declared.
Mr Monks emphasised his hopes that the Low Pay Commission would continue in being, to look at the rate over the years ahead. ''I am very keen that the Government doesn't mess about with that,'' he said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article