Key information
Date: Wednesday 01st July 2015
Time: 10:00am
Motion detail
Following International Justice Day for Cleaners (15 June 2015), this Assembly would like to put on record its support for employees in this sector.
Across Greater London, 85 per cent of cleaning jobs are low paid.[7]The cleaning sector is indicative of a wider lack of progress in increasing the number of jobs paying the London Living Wage in London’s low-pay sectors since 2008. In June 2009, the Mayor addressed the British Hospitality Association annual lunch, during which he encouraged the sector to adopt the London Living Wage. Since then, no London-based employers in this sector have become accredited.
This Assembly is deeply concerned by the growth of low pay in Greater London. Real wages are now £2,097 a year lower than they were in 2008[8], while the proportion of jobs paying less than the London Living Wage has increased from 13.2 per cent to 19.4 per cent since the Mayor took office, dragging an additional 348,000 workers further into poverty pay.[9] In London, 917,000 jobs now pay less than the London Living Wage.[10]
This Assembly supports the Mayor’s vision for the London Living Wage to be the norm by 2020; but we recognise that the city is moving further away from achieving this objective. In his final year in office, we call on the Mayor to refocus his attentions on reversing this trend. We particularly call on him to focus on London’s low pay sectors and to increase the Greater London Authority resources available for engaging with employers in these sectors.[11]
[7] ‘Fair pay: Making the London Living Wage the norm’, London Assembly Economy Committee, February 2014, p.8
[8] Written question No: 2015/0380, January 2015
[9] Written question No: 2014/5918, December 2014
[10] Written question No: 2014/5918, December 2014
[11] ‘Fair pay: Making the London Living Wage the norm’, London Assembly Economy Committee, February 2014, p.8
Response to motion
Response to motions 1 July 2015