Resources
The Living Wage in London
Citizens UK: 'London Citizens' launched the London Living Wage campaign in 2001. This website includes: general information about the campaign in London; a history of the campaign and its impact; details of the accreditation scheme for employers; messages from some Living Wage employers; information on the new Living Wage foundation launching in 2011; & a news page.
Living Wage Foundation: In August 2011, the Living Wage Foundation was founded by organisations including Queen Mary University, Save the Children, auditors KPMG and law firm Linklaters ‘to provide strategic advice, financial support and endorsement to the idea of a living wage.'
VIDEO: Spare Us A Thought - Support Living Wage:
Queen Mary, University of London LWC (research) : Queen Mary became the first Living Wage University in 2007. This website includes research on the living wage, including a history of its beginnings in the USA and spread to the UK complete with a timeline for the London LWC; a section on "Mapping the gap between the National Minimum Wage and the London Living Wage" and specific calculations/data; as well as photographs of celebrating cleaners and cleaning in London.
The Business Case for the Living Wage, QMUL (PDF) : "The research has revealed that the move to be a living wage employer and bring the cleaning service in-house has stimulated improvements in job quality, productivity and service delivery, with very little increase in costs. In addition, the decision has strong support in and beyond the wider community at QMUL."
History
History
2005
UCL’s catering, cleaning and security services were by this point was outsourced to private companies, an initiative spearheaded by Malcolm Grant.
2006
After a campaign at Queen Mary, that university pledged to implement the LLW. It is important to note that the academic work by a geography professor at QM (see above) on the positive effects of the LLW was essential to the campaign, and resulted not only in the pledge, but also in a commitment to bring the workforce back in-house and end outsourcing.
2006-2007
The Bloomsbury Living Wage Campaign (BLWC) was formed as a campaign for the LLW at the universities of the Bloomsbury area. After SOAS, LSE, Birkbeck and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine agreed to pay the LLW, attention was focused on UCL
2008
QM workers were brought back in-house.
August 2008
UCL’s cleaning contract with Office & General was renewed for five years, at a value of £2.7m per annum.
October 2008
SOAS Living Wage Campaign was successful and the university agreed to pay the LLW. SOAS took about 8 months to implement this.
July 2009
ISS, the cleaning contractor at SOAS, invited the UK Borders Agency (UKBA) to raid a meeting they had with the cleaners. The cleaners were locked in the room, and nine were deported, in an attempt to break the growing organisation of the SOAS cleaners.
August 2009
Juan Carlos, a cleaner working for O&G at UCL, was sacked by managers tired of his 'attitude'. He recorded his disciplinary, and it transpired they had seen him attend a solidarity protest at SOAS, and sacked him for being an activist and a trade union member. A campaign was started at UCL to reinstate Juan Carlos, and in response he was reinstated, but on 75% hours on a different contract.
September 2010
By this point, UCL was the only college in Bloomsbury to have not implemented or committed to the LLW. UCL senior management, including Grant, agreed to meet with the UCL LWC on 28 September. At the same time the Campaign was working on getting UCL’s stance reported in the press, resulting in two damaging articles in the Evening Standard in two days (see the Media page). Following this reputational damage, UCL declared it would pay the LLW overnight.
May 2011
UCL Estates began the process of outsourcing those ~100 cleaners, porters and security staff who remained directly employed by UCL.
July 2011
The campaign for the LLW for outsourced staff at Senate House (University of London) was launched. Demonstrations and strikes continued until September, and the UoL agreed to implement the LLW in 2013; further pressure forced them to reduce the timescale to a matter of months.
August 2011
The LLW rose to £8.30/hour. UCL catering staff did not receive an increase in pay in line with this.
July 2012
The LLW was implemented for outsourced staff at Senate House (UoL).
September 2012
Since Sept 2010, O&G cleaners had received pay 'uplifts' to £7.25, still well below the LLW.
Chartwells promised to pay the current LLW from October, back-date it, and raise pay with the LLW in future (see here).
December 2012
Senate House outsourced staff began the 3Cosas campaign for concessions beyond the LLW: equal sick pay, pensions and holiday allowance with other University of London staff.
January 2013
UCL began a tendering process for new ‘soft services’ contracts (cleaning, catering, security).
1 August 2013
UCL implemented the LLW, 34 months after committing to it.
