Jason Leman

On November 7^th the Council administration will recommend that all directly employed Council staff will be paid a Living Wage. However, there are over five thousand people employed through contracts from the City Council, many of whom will not be being paid the Living Wage.

Sheffield Green Party spokesperson Jason Leman comments : “It’s taken three years of pushing since we first proposed the Council pay a Living wage, so we’re delighted it is finally being implemented. What we’re looking for now is a commitment to ensure any new contracts signed with the City Council include a clause that all people working under those contracts are paid a Living Wage. Other Councils have done it and found it has worked well. Sheffield Council should stand up for decent pay.’

He continues : ‘The money can be found – our proposal to cut the pay of high paid Council staff by an average of 10% last year would have saved the Council £300,000. That money could be used to change the lives of low paid staff for the better. ”

NOTES :

– Over five thousand people not on Living wage is based on estimated number of people employed from total outsourced contract value of £455m, third of monies on staff costs, average total staff cost £30,000

– One Society’s report on outsourcing in Local Government:
http://www.onesociety.org.uk/research/leading-the-way-on-fair-pay/

– The Green amendment wording is :

(a) notes that 4th – 10th November is Living Wage Week, and that the
Living Wage is calculated by the Centre for Research in Social Policy
at £7.20 per hour, compared to the national minimum wage of £6.19 per
hour;

(b) notes recent research from KPMG indicating that 4.82 million
people across the country are paid less than the Living Wage, which
amounts to one in five workers in the UK;

(c) notes that a Living Wage has been introduced in other areas
across the country where several leading public and private sector
organisations have signed up to the campaign;

(d) believes that paying the living wage boosts the incomes of the
lowest paid, who have been hit especially hard by rising prices,
increasing costs of living and the double dip recession;

e) supports this Administration’s commitment to providing the Living
Wage for all Council employees from 1st January 2013 and notes that it
was first proposed in a motion to Full Council by the smallest
opposition group in 2009;

(f) welcomes that this commitment from the present Administration
means that from January next year all staff employed by Sheffield City
Council will be paid a wage of at least £7.20 per hour, which will see
an increase for the lowest paid 275 staff on the lowest two grades at
the Council;

(g) regrets that Council staff have seen their pay frozen for the
past two years in order to protect as many jobs and services as
possible given the massive cuts imposed by the Government and notes
that consultation is currently taking place with trade unions to
extend the increment freeze, acknowledging that if increments were
frozen again the Council would save £5 million per year, however,
implementing a living wage would target raising the incomes of the
Council’s lowest paid staff;

(h) welcomes reducing unnecessary management positions and further
notes that that the approximate £70,000 cost of meeting the cost of
the Living Wage would be covered by several times over by reducing the
pay of all employees paid over £50,000 by 10%, which would act to
reduce the divisive gap between what council staff at the lowest and
highest scales are paid;

(i) further notes that many companies contracted to council currently
pay below the current living wage;

(j) notes the recent report by One Society “Leading the Way on Fair
Pay” that stated “Whilst some local authorities may fear that
extending the Living Wage to contractors might have substantial
adverse impact on budgets, those who have put this into effect have
not found this to be so.”

(k) directs that a report is brought to Cabinet outlining plans to
implement a Living Wage in the Council, explore the options with
regarding making Living Wage a mandatory requirement of future Council
contracts, and to initiate a campaign to support a Living Wage for
Sheffield involving partners across the City in public, private and
voluntary sector organisations.

– The Labour motion wording is :

8. NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR JULIE DORE

That this Council:-

(a) notes that 4th – 10th November is Living Wage Week, and that the Living Wage is calculated by the Centre for Research in Social Policy at £7.20 per hour, compared to the national minimum wage of £6.19 per hour;

(b) notes recent research from KPMG indicating that 4.82 million people across the country are paid less than the Living Wage, which amounts to one in five workers in the UK;

(c) notes that a Living Wage has been introduced in other areas across the country where several leading public and private sector organisations have signed up to the campaign;

(d) believes that paying the living wage boosts the incomes of the lowest paid, who have been hit especially hard by rising prices, increasing costs of living and the double dip recession;

(e) supports this Administration’s commitment to providing the Living Wage of £7.20 per hour for all Council employees from 1st January 2013;

(f) welcomes that this commitment from the present Administration means that from January next year all staff employed by Sheffield City Council will be paid a wage of at least £7.20 per hour, which will see an increase for the lowest paid 275 staff on the lowest two grades at the Council;

(g) regrets that Council staff have seen their pay frozen for the past two years in order to protect as many jobs and services as possible given the massive cuts imposed by the Government and notes that consultation is currently taking place with trade unions to extend the increment freeze, acknowledging that if increments were frozen again the Council would save £5 million per year, however, implementing a living wage would target raising the incomes of the Council’s lowest paid staff;

(h) supports the present Administration’s commitment to meet the cost of the Living Wage at the same time as making a £1 million saving through cuts to senior management positions; and

(i) directs that a report is brought to Cabinet outlining plans to implement a Living Wage in the Council and to initiate a campaign to support a Living Wage for Sheffield involving partners across the City in public, private and voluntary sector organisations.