Lambeth council hosted a workshop on Friday with the NHS Trusts in Lambeth to support them on their journey to becoming accredited as London Living Wage employers.
Biggest employers
The four NHS trusts – King’s College Hospital, Guy’s and St Thomas’s, St George’s and South London and the Maudsley – are the area’s biggest employers with over 40,000 workers between them. Following meetings with Lambeth Council’s Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, Cllr Ed Davie, all of those NHS trusts have agreed to aim to pay all staff and those they contract at least £10.55 an hour.
Living Wage Foundation best practice
Cllr Davie brought together representatives from the Lambeth NHS Trusts at a workshop facilitated by the Living Wage foundation at Lambeth Town Hall. The aim was to share best practice and experience about accreditation, there were also representatives from the council’s own employment team and NHS Trusts, Chelsea and Westminster NHS Trust and University College London Hospital, which are accredited with the London Living Wage Foundation.
Living Wage as a priority
Encouraging employers to pay the living wage is a priority of the Lambeth administration. Lambeth Council was one of the first councils in the UK to pay the London Living Wage in 2012 and rolled this our through our procurement process. It is also now a requirement for organisations that receive council grants or that rent commercial property from the council to pay the London Living Wage.
UK’s first Living Wage building
Last month, Lambeth council delivered the first Living Wage building in the UK at International House, a former council office building, which will will be home to a range of organisations who will all pay workers and contractors at least the London Living Wage. Lambeth also launched its own Equality Commission to identify and tackle inequalities in our borough – a key recommendation was for employers to pay the Living Wage
Word from the Cabinet
Cllr Davie said: “Poverty makes people ill and so it was natural that we ask and support our NHS partners, the biggest employers in Lambeth, to get London Living Wage accredited and potentially lift thousands of our residents out of poverty. Our brilliant NHS has responded positively and we are delighted to help them achieve this important goal. We will be working to make sure that even more Lambeth residents get the benefit of fairly paid jobs and business opportunities created by our huge local bodies like hospitals, universities, arts and sports venues.”
NHS journey to Living Wage
Lucy Bannister from the Living Wage Foundation said: “I was pleased to be invited by Lambeth Council to facilitate this workshop which was a helpful way for the NHS Trusts to discuss common challenges and benefits of becoming accredited London Living Wage employers. The workshop was very successful and I look forward to working with the NHS Trusts, Guy’s & St. Thomas’, Kings College Hospital and South London and Maudsley in their accreditation journey.”
