Follow our lead on pay say council

Request to private firms

Stirling businesses are being asked to follow the council’s example by aiming to pay their staff at least £10 an hour.

Councillors agreed last Thursday to implement the Living Wage, backdated to November 16 this year, at a rate of £9.37 an hour.

The sum will see 137 council employees benefit and keeps the authority’s lowest paid staff on a rate seven pence higher than the National Living Wage. The costs for this financial year – £16,700 – would be drawn from the reserves budget.

However, the council also agreed a proposal should be brought forward in the 2020-21 budget plans to introduce a temporary pay supplement from April 1 next year which would ensure the lowest wage offered to its staff would be the equivalent of £10 per hour.

If agreed in the budget, this would then apply until such time as the Living Wage Foundation recommended hourly rate rises to or above £10 per hour.

Stirling Council first implemented the Living Wage in April 2012 in line with an agreement reached between COSLA and the Scottish Government.

However, it is one of a handful of local authority employers to have implemented it as a consolidated hourly rate, which trades unions are campaigning for nationally.

In November, 2018, the Living Wage increased to £9 per hour, but the council agreed to increase the starting hourly rate to £9.07 per hour.

Last month the Living Wage Foundation recommended the rate nationally be increased to £9.30 from April 1 next year.

Chiefhuman resources officer Kristine Johnson said: “We know that paying the Living Wage supports our employees to have good lives with their families. It also helps with our gender pay gap because a lot of our female employees are at grade one, so it makes a difference.”

Finance convener and Labour councillor Margaret Brisley, along with SNP councillor Alison Laurie, successfully lodged a motion proposing the £10 a rate hour being brought forward in next year’s budget proposals.

She said: “We do want to make the proposal included in next year’s budget to introduce a temporary wage supplement from April to ensure the lowest equivalent is a minimum of £10 an hour. We will also engage with council employees and trade unions about this.”

Tory group leader Councillor Neil Benny said the motion would support the council to recruit and retain staff. However, he suggested also communicating to the council’s suppliers and local businesses about the benefits of ensuring the lowest paid workers in society were paid a Living Wage.

Councillor Brisley agreed, adding: “We don’t want to be the only employer who is putting this up to £10 an hour. We want to encourage all our suppliers and people that have contracts with us.”

Council leader Scott Farmer said: “I certainly concur with that. We are sending out a clear signal to our suppliers and other businesses in Stirling of the benefits of having a Living Wage and treating employees with the dignity and respect they deserve.”

Green councillor Alasdair Tollemache also asked that the council look at its agreements with the third sector to also aim for a £10 rate from next April.

Independent councillor Rob Davies, however, described the move as “La La Land economics”, saying asking local businesses to up their wages would only see prices increased. He asked for his dissent to be recorded.

Chief finance officer Jim Boyle said officials would work out proposals in terms of the £10 Living Wage and also the third sector and bring a report back to the council.