Living wage campaign

Conference applauds the Living Wage Campaign and supports the work of the TUC,
STUC, Trade unions, campaigners and The Living Wage Foundation in persuading
employers to implement the Living Wage currently set at £7.85 per hour and £9.15 per
hour in London.

Conference recognises that the Living Wage is the bare minimum needed by workers
to meet their living costs and is the first step to ending the scandal of poverty pay that
is currently suffered by millions of workers in the UK. Conference therefore recognizes
and supports the related campaign to ultimately achieve a minimum wage of £10 per
hour to properly reward workers and help enable them to have a sustainable standard
of living. Outsourcing, zero hours contracts, contracting out and privatisation of public
services have suppressed the pay of many low paid workers in recent years making
millions of workers dependent on state benefits for survival. This also effectively
provides unscrupulous employers with taxpayer funded subsidies to support their
policy of poverty pay that then allows them to win and retain contracts by
undercutting responsible employers. Workers welfare benefits are also being
constantly cut as part of the Tory led Government’s destructive and divisive austerity
agenda.

Conference therefore demands the EC lobby the NJC and that Brigade Committees
lobby Fire and Rescue Authorities to ensure all employees of Fire and Rescue
Authorities are paid at least the living wage. Consequentially, all contracts awarded by
Fire and Rescue Authorities should go to accredited companies and businesses that
are committed to paying the Living Wage and have been awarded the license to use
the Living Wage employer mark.

Conference further demands that the TUC and STUC lobby the UK and devolved
Governments to commit to paying at least the Living Wage and further demands that
all Government and public sector contracts are awarded only to employers committed
to paying at least the Living Wage and that have been awarded the license to use the
Living Wage employer mark.