Press Release

Mayor looks forward to fair pay for all Londoners
28-7-2008   389

Mayor of London Boris Johnson today called on the capital's employers to work towards raising pay for their low paid staff to the level of the London Living Wage to help meet the high costs of living in this city. He made the call as he welcomed the news that Haden Building Management, which is supplying facilities services to the Metropolitan Police, will pay all 406 staff on the contract at least the new London Living Wage rate of £7.45 per hour from November.

Today’s announcement also received further employer-led support for the London Living Wage with Barclays confirming that it has increased already market-leading base pay rate of £7.50 to £7.73 per hour for its third-party employees working in Greater London.  A total of around 1,000 cleaning, mailroom, gym and catering employees working across 370 Barclays branches and offices throughout the capital have directly benefited from these increases.

The GLA group, which has been actively implementing the London Living Wage across its workforce and sub-contractors since 2005, has seen over 1,000 directly and indirectly employed staff benefit from this new fairer level of pay. This figure will pass the 2,000 mark as soon as the pay of most Metronet cleaners on the tube network is raised to the level of the London Living Wage from next month.

The Mayor was speaking at Barclays in London Docklands as he officially launched ‘A fairer London: The 2008 Living Wage in London’, the report which explains why the current Living Wage for London has been increased from £7.20 to £7.45 an hour to meet the increasing cost of living in the capital.

The Mayor said:
‘One way I can keep an election promise to tackle the capital's obscene levels of poverty and deprivation is to raise the London Living Wage and step up the campaign to persuade London employers to match my commitment to ensure all GLA Group employees and contracted out staff receive at least £7.45 per hour. Therefore I have made it clear to all parts of the organisation that I expect the London Living Wage to be the basic standard.

‘But at the end of the day it is more employers like Haden and Barclays setting the example for others to follow that will deliver a fair rate of pay for all Londoners.

‘This is not only morally right but also makes good business sense, contributing to better recruitment and retention of staff, higher productivity, and a more loyal workforce with high morale. I look forward to the day when we can say that no Londoner is being paid anything less than the London Living Wage.’

Penny Davis, HR Director, Haden Building Management said:
“Haden Building Management is pleased to be associated with the Greater London Authority, Metropolitan Police and the TUC in introducing the London Living Wage and we look forward to developing the benefits to all parties.

“The company always strives to provide the best employment and development opportunities across its businesses.”

Barclays Employee Relations Director Dominic Johnson said:
"We believe that people who work for our contractors, whether cleaners, security staff or in other roles, all contribute to our customers' experience of Barclays.  Fair pay means motivated staff who stay working at Barclays longer.  Improving people's standard of living makes business sense."

Megan Dobney, Regional Secretary for the TUC in London said:
“London has the highest child poverty rate in the country.  Almost half of these children in poverty have at least one parent at work. In-work poverty is an unacceptable fact in this city. Paying the London Living Wage is one way employers can help lift working people and their families out of the poverty trap. Barclays Bank, Haden Building Management and Ealing Council are among a range of organisations that have shown that with a strong business case and a commitment to change, employers all over London can do the right thing and eradicate poverty pay from their workplaces.  Unions in London are committed to working with employers to promote the London Living Wage, lifting the standards of the low paid across London.”

Julian Stone, Divisional Managing Director, OCS Group UK Limited, which supplies cleaning services at City Hall, said:
“OCS has fully supported the introduction of the London Living Wage and we have already experienced some tangible benefits from this. Our employee churn has reduced significantly and our staff no longer leave us for just a few pence more.  Our improved retention rates mean we can spend more time training and coaching our teams and less time recruiting new people. Staffs are also happier and more committed to a job of greater value to them.  All of these factors enable us to provide our clients with a more consistent quality service, which goes a long way to ensuring that their working environments meet with their expectations.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

1. The report can be found at www.london.gov.uk/mayor/economic_unit/index.jsp

2. The Living Wage is independently calculated annually by GLA Economics and is defined as “a wage that achieves an adequate level of warmth and shelter, a healthy palatable diet, social integration and avoidance of chronic stress for earners and their dependents.”

3. All GLA group staff are paid at or above the London Living Wage.  The GLA and all organisations within the group (London Development Agency, Transport for London, London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, Metropolitan Police Authority and the Metropolitan Police Service) have confirmed that all their direct employees are now paid at or above the 2007 Living Wage of £7.20 per hour and the Mayor expects them to ensure all staff are paid at least £7.45 per hour as soon as possible.

4. Three of the four current Metronet cleaners contracts will be upgraded to include the London Living Wage when they are renewned next month and Transport for London expect to be able to upgrade the final contract by the end of the year.

5. Taking account of both full-time and part-time workers in London, around one in seven employees receive less than the £6.50 poverty threshold wage and one in five employees receive less than the £7.45 London Living Wage. 

6. Twenty-seven organisations, including the GLA Group, have now signed up to paying their staff the London Living Wage.  Some of the other organisations besides the GLA Group include the Metropolitan Police Service, St Bart’s and the London Hospital, large banks such as HSBC and Deutsche Bank, higher education institutions such as the London School of Economics, think tanks like the Institute for Public Policy Research and a number of voluntary sector organisations such as the Child Poverty Action Group.  There has also been interest from a number of London Boroughs regarding the London Living Wage and so some of these may be paying the Living Wage by next year.  Ealing and Newham Councils have committed to paying the London Living Wage on key contracts. The Mayor is encouraging all London employers to join the campaign.

7. In June 2007 Barclays announced the introduction of a market-leading base pay rate of £7.50 per hour for its third-party employees working in Greater London.  It has now increased this to £7.73 per hour. A total of around 1,000 cleaning, mailroom, gym and catering employees working across 370 Barclays branches and offices throughout the capital have directly benefited from these increases.

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