Torsten Bell says Labour manifesto ‘did not set out the timeline’ for changes to living wage after scale of youth unemployment crisis revealed in Milburn report A union leader has expressed alarm at the suggestion from Torsten Bell that the government might not ensure that all over-18s are covered by the national living wage by the time of the next election. Responding to Bell’s interview on the Today programme this morning (see 9.23am ), Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the TSSA transport union, said: Ditching the manifesto commitment to an equal living wage for employees of all ages would be a betrayal of young workers. Young people are far too often expoited as a source of cheap labour as a consequence of the lower statutory national minimum wage rates for their age group.