Camden Council has now formally become a Living Wage employer, under the scheme run by London Citizens. Camden Green Party and the London Green Party as a whole congratulates the Council for finally making a clear commitment in this respect.
Green Cllr Maya de Souza
The LLW is £8.30 an hour so for a 35 hour week an employee previously on the minimum wage of approx £6.20 will get an extra £2 an hour. That’s an extra £3500 a year before tax. This means more pay and less benefits on the whole, so the result is more money in the hands of poorer people, and a lower burden on the state.
Lower income people also tend to spend more of their money, so this is good in terms of boosting demand, the economy and jobs.
Camden Green Party have been calling for a clear commitment for years, following the success of Green London Assembly members in getting a Low Pay Unit set up, and a higher London Living Wage set.
In the 2006-2010 Lib-Dem/Conservative administration, a commitment was made to pay staff at least the London living wage. The Greens played a key role in lobbying for this, alongside the Unions. We immediately pushed the administration to go further, ensuring that contracted out staff – on Camden’s many contracts, were also paid fairly.
The Greens continued to lobby for this, and earlier this year questioned Cllr Hayward’s commitment to the living wage but excluding adult social care services. We are pleased to see that there is no longer such an exclusion.
The Council’s commitment made this month is to ensure that the living wage is taken into account in decisions on contracts, affecting staff in contracted out services like cleaning, parking and catering. All staff should be paid a minimum of £8.30 an hour.
Cllr de Souza says, “We congratulate the Council on making this commitment to a London living wage for contracted out staff. This will make a big difference if fully implemented. We will continue to scrutinise to make sure this actually happens, as the commitment is to ensure that fair pay is taken into account in decisions on contracts, rather than raise pay immediately. When the last administration, lib-Dem/Cons, put in place a living wage policy for Camden staff, it was the Greens that said this was not enough, and that the Council should ensure contracted out staff also received this higher minimum wage. It was Labour’s mass contracting out that had led to a large part of this problem, with a 2 tier workforce. It was Greens and not Labour who insisted fair pay was non-negotiable, and we should do this whatever the cost. This is clear from the budget amendments both parties sought.”
Natalie Bennett, Leader of the Green Party says, “We congratulate the Labour Council for its voluntary commitment to the London Living Wage. This is a good step forward, and we look forward to the difference this will make. However, it only benefits Camden contracted out staff. There will be many low paid people living or working in the borough that won’t get any benefit. The best option would be for a higher minimum wage for London that reflects the real costs of living. It’s a shame that neither the last Labour Govt nor the current coalition government are pushing for this, and Ed Milliband has not come out in favour of anything but the voluntary living wage. It’s time for us all to push for a minimum wage across the board that’s sufficient for people to live on, rather than make them reliant on benefits. That’s a key part of an anti-austerity policy as well as a policy that really tries to create a fairer and more equal society”.
Please note that this article originally appeared on the Camden Green Party website.