PAY OUR VIRUS HEROES ‘REAL’ LIVING WAGE
Vital workers ‘risking their lives’ for under £9.30 an hour
Thousands of workers in Renfrewshire who are essential to the community during the coronavirus crisis are paid less than the real living wage.
A total of 18,000 people in the local authority area - 23 per cent of those in employment - are being paid less than £9.30 an hour.
Included in the thousands are those in roles such as hospital porters, retail workers, cleaning staff and teaching assistants.
The proportion of employees affected across Scotland ranges from 20 per cent of ambulance staff – excluding paramedics – to 92 per cent of shelf fillers.
The failure to pay employees the real living wage has been branded a “disgrace” by unions who say those working in vital roles are putting their lives at risk during the pandemic.
Pat McIlvogue, regional industrial officer for Unite, said: “There are so many employers out there who are paying people less than the real living wage.
“It is ridiculous.
“These people are putting their lives at risk during this pandemic and those in roles such as cleaners are doing their best to fight the spread of this virus.
“At the end of this, employers need to take a look at their policies and consider what they are paying their key workers. There shouldn’t be a single person in Scotland who is paid below the real living wage. It’s a disgrace.”
Unite is currently running a campaign at Glasgow Airport in a bid to ensure all employees are paid to the real living wage standard.
Glasgow Airport’s policy ensures staff are paid to this standard, and Unite are campaigning for other employers on the airport campus to do the same.
Pat added: “We have an agreement with Glasgow Airport that people are paid appropriately.
“The mantra on the campus is ‘one campus, one culture’ therefore we are campaigning for all other employers on the site to pay their staff the same standard.”
The real living wage is a voluntary scheme devised by the Living Wage Foundation, which is calculated independently from the government and is based on costs such as food, clothing and household bills.
The scheme is separate to the statutory National Living Wage, which was raised to £8.72 an hour from April 1.
Tim Roache, GMB general secretary, also called for workers to be given a Coronavirus Crisis Allowance with immediate effect.
This would mean key workers would be given an additional payment to boost their wages during the coronavirus crisis.
He added: “This crisis has shown everyone just how crucial so many low-paid workers are to our health, safety and well-being.
“Millions of frontline workers aren’t paid enough to live on, but where would we be without them? Not just in this crisis, every single day of the year.
“When this is over, we need to have a national conversation about how we value the people who care for us. But right now key workers are risking their health for the public good and they shouldn’t be going home to their families with poverty pay in their purses and pockets.
“That’s why we’re calling for a Coronavirus Crisis Allowance to be paid now – the vast majority of the public back GMB’s call for this.
“This is about doing right by people who are putting themselves in harm’s way to look after the rest of us.”