{"id":15174,"date":"2018-05-08T16:48:29","date_gmt":"2018-05-08T15:48:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=15174"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:45","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:45","slug":"15174-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=15174","title":{"rendered":"‘Lost wages’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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London living wage (LLW) accredited councils have outsourced work to a leisure services provider that is \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshort changing\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 up to a 1,000 young people by not paying them the living wage.<\/p>\n

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A Unite investigation found that hundreds of 18-to-20 year olds working for Greenwich Leisure Limited<\/a> (GLL) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an outsourcing firm that bills itself as a social enterprise despite employing most of its staff on casual contracts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are being paid \u00c2\u01418.20 a hour instead of the LLW rate of \u00c2\u014110.20.<\/p>\n

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GLL has contracts to run services, such as libraries and swimming pools, with nine councils accredited by the Living Wage Foundation<\/a> under conditions that stipulate they must ensure firms working for them pay the living wage<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

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However, only 18-to-20 year old GLL staff in Greenwich, Hackney and Islington are being paid the correct amount, while those in Camden, Croydon, Ealing, Lambeth, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest are not.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s investigations have exposed a running sore of a scandal that, we believe, has deprived\u00c2\u00a0 up to 1,000 people working on zero hour contracts in six London boroughs of hundreds of pounds in \u00e2\u20ac\u0098lost\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 wages,” said Unite regional officer Onay Kasab.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLondon is one of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most expensive cities \u00e2\u20ac\u201c yet GLL, that boasts it is a social enterprise organisation, is short changing young people. This must stop immediately.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kasab said that responsibility also lies with the councils<\/a>, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bwho are supposed to write into their outsourcing contracts that the LLW must be paid to all employees aged over 18\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is demanding that the councils insist on this and that GLL honours the London \u00e2\u20ac\u0098living wage\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in principle and also in practice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has a written response from GLL stating that it does not pay the LLW to staff aged 18 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 20. This goes against the conditions under which GLL gained these contracts in all councils with accreditation status.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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GLL have also only been paying casual staff over the age of 21 the LLW since April this year, even though they should have been receiving it from the date the council had accreditation, which in some cases goes back years.<\/p>\n

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Around two-thirds of people working for GLL, which has contracts across the country and employs 10,000 people, are on casual contracts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite regional officer for young members Mercedes Sanchez said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLocal authorities – proud to have the LLW accreditation – which do not check if contractors are in compliance have some explaining to do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite has been requesting access to council reports which set out the promised \u00e2\u20ac\u0098efficiencies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 proposed by GLL. Access has been refused on so-called \u00e2\u20ac\u0098confidentiality\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 grounds.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a poverty pay scandal hitting young people in London which must now be urgently addressed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

London living wage (LLW) accredited councils have outsourced work to a leisure services provider that is \u00e2\u20ac\u015bshort changing\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 up to a 1,000 young people by not paying them the living wage.   A Unite investigation found that hundreds of 18-to-20 year olds working for Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an outsourcing firm that bills itself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[349,192,536,71],"wps_subtitle":"'Social enterprise' GLL robbing young people of Living Wage","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15174"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26210,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15174\/revisions\/26210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}