The announcement follows a campaign by Lambeth Councillors to support all NHS trusts, and other major employers serving Lambeth, get Living Wage accredited.
Last May Lambeth Council hosted a Town Hall workshop for SLaM, Guy’s and St Thomas’ (GSTT) and King’s College Hospital (KCH) with the Living Wage Foundation and council officers with experience of transferring contracts to Living Wage rates.
The event was hosted by Cllr Edward Davie, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care alongside his fellow cabinet member Cllr Jacqui Dyer and the council’s Living Wage Policy Lead Cllr Jon Davies.
All three local NHS trusts agreed to seek accreditation. Lambeth Council continued to lobby the trusts and last month GSTT became the UK’s 6,000th Living Wage Accredited employer and now SLaM have reached the important milestone as well.
Lambeth Council will continue to work with KCH and other employers to get them accredited as soon as possible.
Cllr Davie said: “Lambeth Council is determined to lift the 18per cent of workers in Lambeth currently paid below the Living Wage rate out of poverty.
“This news from SLaM really helps us with that mission and I congratulate the Trust for doing the right thing for hundreds of caterers, cleaners, porters, security guards and other workers who make a great contribution to our communities.
“SLaM employs over 10,000 local people and GSTT over 20,000 so with both of those Trusts becoming Living Wage accredited we are really making great strides to ending poverty pay.”
Lambeth Council has been a Living Wage accredited employer since 2012 with over 99 per cent of its contracts paying above the Living Wage rate. Last year Lambeth Council opened the UK’s first Living Wage Building, International House in Brixton that houses local charities, social enterprises and businesses that all pay above £10.75 an hour.
