Councillor
Richard McCready
29 September 2012
I've called for
Dundee City Council to make real progress on the Living
Wage.
In March the City Council
agreed to implement the Living Wage for all City Council employees and to
promote the Living Wage to arms-length organisations and to those who enter
into contracts with the City Council.
I'm looking for
Dundee City Council to respond positively to the consultation on the proposed
Members' Bill from John Park MSP in the Scottish Parliament on the Living Wage (Scotland) Bill
which would require private sector employees working on public sector contracts
to be paid the Living Wage and/or require the Scottish Government to prepare
and report to the Scottish Parliament on a strategic plan to promote the Living
Wage.
I was very
pleased that Dundee City Council agreed to adopt a Living Wage policy back in
March.
Labour had been
leading the way with calls for this.
I think that
the time has come to implement the policy.
I sought an
update on the policy and have been told that a report is being written, that is
very good but it is action that is required.
People should
be getting this extra cash in their pockets sooner rather than later and I would
like to see it in pay packets before Christmas, of all nine months after the
policy was agreed.
The council
should be giving a moral lead in paying at least the Living Wage to all its
employees and looking for ways to encourage, cajole and even insist that
contractors pay the Living Wage.
The council
should be concerned about the way companies it gives business to behave.
We are rightly
concerned about the health and safety record of such companies, for example,
therefore I think that it is only right that we have concern about their wage
rates.
The council
invests huge amounts of money on behalf of the people of Dundee it is morally
right that the people of Dundee benefit from
the money spent on their behalf.
I want the
council to bring forward this report on the implementation of the Living Wage
sooner rather than later and I want the council to give a strong lead to the
city and to say that the Living Wage should be paid right across the city.
I have written
to the City Council's Chief Executive asking that the council responds to the
consultation on the Living Wage (Scotland) Bill, which
would require private sector employees on public sector contracts to be paid
the Living Wage and that the Scottish Government implements a strategic plan to
promote the Living Wage.
Six out of ten
poor children in Scotland live in
families that suffer from in-work poverty.
There is a
commitment from a range of public sector bodies, including Dundee City Council,
to pay their employees the Living Wage but this must go further.
Over half a
million Scots still do not earn the Living Wage and it is time that changed.