End injustice at UCL: a new year, but the campaign continues

Despite committing to the London Living Wage two years ago in September 2010, UCL still pays its contract cleaning and catering staff poverty wages. We demand the London Living Wage (LLW) now. When SOAS and Birkbeck implemented the LLW, the workers were receiving it within a year; UCL intends to wait a further academic year, until August 2013, before it implements the wage, and has made little movement on the associated ‘package’. We demand that UCL stop stalling, and pay their workers a decent wage now.

The root cause of this injustice is outsourcing: the sub-contracting of university services, like cleaning, catering and security, to private companies. Staff members directly employed by UCL all receive at least LLW, but those employed by the private companies do not; indeed, before the Living Wage Campaign at UCL, the wages of outsourced cleaners were kept depressed at the minimum wage, a poverty wage in London. The privatisation has therefore created a two-tier workforce: UCL staff who get half-decent conditions and pay, and subcontracted staff on poverty wages. Furthermore, outsourcing introduces extra layers of management and profit-making, meaning that it may not even save money for UCL: in other words, public money, including fees, goes to private profit and greedy shareholders rather than the staff who earned it and keep the university running. We therefore demand an end to privatisation, as recognition of the essential work cleaners, catering and security staff perform at UCL.

Sign the petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ucllivingwage/

To find out more about the campaign, email: ucllivingwage@gmail.com

Like the Campaign on Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/ucllivingwagefb

Follow the Campaign on Twitter: @UCLLivingWage

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The London Living Wage (LLW) is calculated every year by the Mayor of London’s office as the wage needed to stay out of poverty in London.  The 2011-2012 LLW is £8.30/hour, well above the national minimum wage. The full ‘LLW package’ includes other work 'conditions’ which make for a minimum quality of life: ten days sick pay, overtime opportunities, maternity leave, 28 days holiday, a decent pension, and union representation.

The LLW is not a legal requirement; however, it is an ethical requirement as well as a sound investment in staff. Even David Cameron has endorsed it. Poverty pay is morally wrong, and people living in poverty are cannot work effectively. All the Universities in Bloomsbury (including SOAS and Birkbeck) pay their workers the LLW, and for several years we have been campaigning at UCL to get cleaners, porters, security and catering staff (people without whom the university could not function) paid the LLW.