UNISON Regional Organiser, Simon MacFarlane has written to the Chief Executive of Glasgow City Council, George Black, leader of the Council, George Matheson and the Principal Officer of the Council, Kevin Rush to request a meeting to discuss the council's support for a Glasgow Living Wage.
Below we reproduce the text of the letter:
I am writing to ask to meet with you to discuss the Living Wage and its applicability to the voluntary sector. The Living Wage will only be of genuine benefit if it provides a floor across as much of the economy in Glasgow and beyond as possible. It is my view that the Council must use it social, economic and moral leavers to help deliver this.
Being the first Council in Scotland to sign up to the Living Wage is to be commended, however it is time for the Authority to act. Words and a website have their part to play but the Authority needs to put its money where its mouth is.
My job in UNISON is supporting our members who work in the community and voluntary sector. Many or our members work for charities involved in the provision of social care. These organisations have seen their funding to service provision ratio squeezed year on year and as the bulk of the costs in this area are staff this directly impacts on our members.
To give just one example, the Council is the major funder of The Mungo Foundation, many staff here earn below the Living Wage of £7.15, some are only a few pence above the National Minimum Wage, yet instead of wages rising they have been frozen for two years.
As the major funder of The Mungo Foundation you should be calling on them to implement the Living Wage, and crucially you should be funding them to do so.
I would like to meet with you along with some of our members who are affected by these issues to discuss this matter.
I look forward to hearing from you.
