Richmond Green councillors have won cross-party support for a motion to extend the Living Wage to all Council employees.
The motion welcomed the fact that the London Living Wage is already paid to all directly employed staff and noted that a condition of them becoming an Accredited Living Wage Employer is to develop a plan to extend the London Living Wage to staff working for contractors. The Council agreed to develop a costed plan fwith a view to ensuring all future contracts allow for the London Living Wage within the lifetime of the contract. The Council hopes that these actions will promote a greater take up of the London Living Wage across all borough employers.
In her speech proposing the motion at the full Council meeting on Tuesday 22 January, Deputy Green Group Leader, Andree Frieze, said: ‘Just this week, Oxfam announced their inequality report in which they show that the world’s 26 richest people own as much as poorest 50%. It is entirely clear that rather then wealth ‘trickling down’ into the upturned palms of the 3.8 billion poorest people on the planet, money is funnelling upwards into the grasping hands of an intensely privileged, gilded few.
‘As a council we cannot sit by and let the poor and vulnerable face increasing inequality, particularly when that inequality is happening right here in our own borough. The Trust for London’s Inequality Profile rates Richmond as the 5th most unequal borough in London.
‘The Lib Dem manifesto for Richmond pledges a fairer borough for all. Becoming a Living Wage Accredited council would be an important step in making this promise a reality and leading the way for contractors and local businesses.’
Richard Bennett, Green Group Leader, who sits on the Finance Committee, will make sure the the Lib Dems honour this motion.