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Petition Tag - living wage
WHAT IS A LIVING WAGE?
The Living Wage is the minimum hourly rate someone has to earn to afford everyday basics like housing, food, childcare, etc. It is based on an example of a typical couple working full time with two children in paid childcare. It assumes the couple have one pre-school child and another in primary school. Importantly it also assumes they get all the benefits and tax credits they are eligible for, including 80% of their childcare costs. Outside of London the current rate is £7.20. There is no perfect way to calculate a minimum but the Living Wage is enough to protect 90% of working age households. Outside of London the Living Wage is calculated by the Centre for Social Policy at Loughbourgh University. The Centre has developed a methodology to set and up rate a Living Wage outside London, based on its Minimum Income Standard Research.
The research is based on in-depth focus group discussions across the UK with people from different sections of society to discuss and agree what is needed for an adequate standard of living. They agreed the standard below which families should not fall below. Researchers then calculated how much this standard of living cost on average in the UK, using chain store prices. The headline figure was then adjusted to reflect the variations in housing costs around the UK. You can read more about how the Living Wage is calculated at www.minimumincomestandard.org
WHY SHOULD BANGOR UNIVERSITY INTRODUCE A LIVING WAGE?
If you work full time in our University or Student Union you ought not to be poor.
Low paid Staff often have to work long hours or work several jobs to make ends meet. This means they have to choose between living in poverty and spending less time with their families.
Research suggests that to provide the basics for a family of 2 children, someone working 40 hours a week would need to earn £8.30 an hour in London and £7.20 an hour elsewhere.
To earn enough to support their family at the National Minimum Wage someone would need to work 56 hours a week in London and 48 hours a week outside of London.
The University can pay a living wage if it chooses to. It is a question of priorities and whether it believes that paying its staff a decent wage is important. It would also cost the university very little; our research through FOI requests suggest it would cost £2406 for directly employed staff, and contractors would be cost neutral, if the university made the Living Wage a condition before awarding its contracts.
One in five children currently grows up in poverty despite living in a family where their parent or parents work. This is nearly two million children, roughly double the number of children living in poverty in in-work families in 1979.
Paying the Living Wage will reduce poverty, household debt, stress and illness and improve family life for university staff.
It also means greater productivity and improved quality of service from more motivated staff. It is also more efficient for the university with staff staying in their jobs for longer, saving on the recruitment and training costs.
Paying the Living Wage is the right thing to do. Everyone should be able to afford what it costs to live and to bring up a family.
2. Leicester University Living Wage Campaign 
If you are a student at any University, you will already know the amount of effort that your tutors put in to get you the mark you want.
What you may forget, however, is the amount of effort the University's staff put in to make sure our seminar rooms, lecture theatres and recreational spaces are clean and safe for both work and societies.
From cleaners to security guards to admin staff, the amount of leg work that goes into keeping a university functioning is colossal. With fees set to triple in the next academic year, many universities are still not paying these staff a living wage. To the point, the University of Leicester still has 595 staff who it does not pay the living wage.
The living wage is both a figure and a set of principles:
• If you work full time in our University/Student Union you ought not to be poor.
• Low paid Staff often have to work long hours or work several jobs to make ends meet. This means they have to choose between living in poverty and spending less time with their families.
• Research suggests that to provide the basics for a family of 2 children, someone working 40 hours a week would need to earn £8.30 an hour in London and £7.20 an hour elsewhere.
• To earn enough to support their family at the National Minimum Wage someone would need to work 56 hours a week in London and 48 hours a week outside of London.
• The University can pay a living wage if it chooses to. It is a question of priorities and whether it believes that paying its staff a decent wage is important. You need to consider what you would say if asked by the University “what wouldn’t you prioritise?”.
• One in five children currently grows up in poverty despite living in a family where their parent or parents work. This is nearly two million children, roughly double the number of children living in poverty in in-work families in 1979.
• Paying the Living Wage will reduce poverty, household debt, stress and illness and improve family life for university staff.
• It also means greater productivity and improved quality of service from more motivated staff. It is also more efficient for the university with staff staying in their jobs for longer, saving on the recruitment and training costs.
• Paying the Living Wage is the right thing to do. Everyone should be able to afford what it costs to live and to bring up a family
3. Take the contract cleaners at UEL back in-house
Following a short and successful campaign last year the VC announced in November that the University of East London (UEL) would sign up to the London Living Wage (LLW).
This ensured that contract cleaning staff, hitherto paid just above minimal wage, would be paid a Living Wage: the minimum amount required to be able to afford to live and work in London as calculated by the Greater London Authority. This currently stands at £7.85 per hour but is rising to £8.30 later this year.
This was a bold step by the VC as UEL was the first new university to sign up to the LLW. Since the announcement other new universities in London have followed suit. As important a milestone as this represents we are now calling on the VC to take the next logical step and take the cleaning staff back in-house at UEL.
The reason for this is twofold: first a report carried out by the UEL branch of Unison, supported by the Hidden Workforce Unit in Unison, found widespread evidence of non-payment and late-payment of contract staff; it found evidence of staff be asked to undertake duties in reduced hours and, as consequence, it found widespread evidence of a demoralised workforce. This is inconsistent with UEL’s commitment to the development of an outstanding workforce.
As there is no guarantee that the same problems would not arise again with a new contractor, we think that UEL should step in here and employ the cleaning staff directly. Secondly, there is ample evidence in the well documented experience of Queen Mary University of London that taking the cleaning staff back in house not only leads to improved morale and a better standard of service but real savings in the mid to long term.
For these reasons we call on the VC to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the end of the current contract to take the cleaning staff back in-house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-aRNW-Rst4
4. A Living Wage for all Oxford University employees
A Living Wage is the minimum level of pay required to maintain a decent standard of living. Unlike the minimum wage, it takes into account many factors including the actual costs of housing, council tax, transport, food and childcare in that area.
The Living Wage is calculated by a formula from the National Income Standard, which is authorised by the Rowntree Trust.
Oxford City Council pays a Living Wage. The Greater London Authority promotes and pays a Living Wage. Universities, such as UCL and LSE, pay a Living Wage.
It is time Oxford University pays a Living Wage.
This petition demonstrates the wealth of student support for the Living Wage Campaign and will force the university and colleges to recognise that this is an important student and community issue.
How you can get involved:
1. You can come along to weekly meetings and get involved in helping to run the campaign. If you are interested in becoming a regular member please email: livingwage@ousu.org
2. You can be someone who we call on when we need to show the university that our campaign has support across the wider student community. This involves showing up to demonstrations and signing this petition! See ”What’s on in OUSU” in the OxStu for updates.
5. A Living Wage for Southwark's workers
Cleaners, carers and other people working for Southwark Council contracts are currently paid less than the basic amount you need to get by in London - the London Living Wage. This is currently £7.85 per hour, or about £15,000 a year.
In 2008 the Green Party introduced a policy, supported by the Labour Party, to pay workers the living wage as contracts came up. But it has never been implemented.
6. Matt McLaughlin - Campaign for a Scottish Living Wage
Across the developed world people are talking about the ‘Living Wage’. Labour’s Prospective Candidate for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley in the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, Matt McLaughlin wants to see a Scotland which is built on a Living Wage economy.
A Living Wage (currently set at £7.15per hour) means much more to workers than a better hourly rate. ‘Living Wage Workers’ are less dependent on benefits, live in better housing, eat healthier food and have confidence that they can heat their homes in the winter. Living Wage Workers children do better at school and have healthier lifestyles.
Despite all of the talk about economic pressures, Scotland can still achieve a Living Wage economy and in doing so our people, our communities and our economy will benefit. Back Matt's campaign for a LIVING WAGE.
7. Fair treatment for all workers at UCL
As things stand, a significant number of contract staff at University College London receive the national minimum wage, £5.80 per hour, which is simply not enough to survive in London. Other University of London colleges such as SOAS, LSE, Birkbeck and Queen Mary’s have already adopted the London Living Wage (LLW), while UCL lags behind.
Former UCL cleaner Juan Carlos Piedra Benitez was dismissed from his job at UCL by contracted cleaning company Office & General. Recordings exist between Mr Piedra and O&G managers which prove that Mr Piedra’s trade union activity, especially in campaigning for the LLW, played an active role in his dismissal. This is not only unfair, but illegal.
Mr Piedra’s case attests quite clearly to the part that the out-sourcing of jobs plays in ensuring staff receive no better than poverty wages. Further, recent events at SOAS have proven contracting companies’ willingness to collude with UK Borders Agency to set up aggressive immigration raids and deportation programmes against cleaners.
8. LIVING WAGE / MINIMUM WAGE !!!
The minimum wage for hourly pay in AMERICA has not been raised since 1997, and $5.15 was Not A LIVING WAGE at that time. Today, we are in need of a LIVING WAGE more than ever. Big corporations are able to lay off at will and profit from unfair business practices, causing a middle class America to disappear.
We the people deserve a LIVING WAGE aportionate to twice the poverty level.
