Living Wage backed by council (From York Press)
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Living Wage backed by City of York Council'
9:57am Wednesday 5th December 2012 in News By Press reporter
HUNDREDS of York council workers will get a pay rise after plans to introduce a Living Wage were approved last night.
City of York Council's cabinet has agreed to use £338,000 from the authority's Economic Infrastructure Fund (EIF) to meet the increased wages of its lowest-paid staff next year, meaning they will earn £7.45 an hour.
The policy will be implemented from April following recommendations made by York's Fairness Commission. The EIF money will cover the 2013/14 costs of upping the pay of 573 employees on council contracts who currently earn less than the Living Wage.
The council has said the cost of the Living Wage from 2014/15 onwards will be met from “core budgets”, although it has yet to be confirmed precisely where this money will come from.
Conservative councillor Chris Steward told last night’s meeting that council staff should be “valued appropriately” but the Living Wage was “the wrong thing to do at this stage”. However, Coun Julie Gunnell, cabinet member for corporate services, said it was an “ethical stance” and the extra money would be a “lifeline” for some employees.
The cabinet also approved five per cent increases in charges for a series of council services from January, including cremations and some waste and library fees. The authority said the increases are in line with inflation and will bring in an extra £32,000 this year and £128,000 in 2013/14 to help frontline services.
Meanwhile, the Labour group has officially nominated Coun Gunnell as next year's Lord Mayor of York. She will step down from her cabinet role in May.
Comments(8)
Ignatius Lumpopo
says...
11:15am Wed 5 Dec 12
inthesticks
says...
11:27am Wed 5 Dec 12
I am happy for my council tax to pay cleaners a decent wage however and I hope that there is a knock on effect eventually all low paid will get a decent wage, public and private sectors, throughout the country. The money just comes out of another pot for a lot of them in giving them tax credits and housing benefit to top it up.
Oaklands resident- you always make a lot of good points but don`t forget that there are an awful lot of pensioners with a lot of money, who don`t have mortgages or rents to pay, who drive round in new cars who can afford to pay their way (and i`m related to some of them).
Maybe those who get some sort of benefit should be able to get services cheaper and those who don`t pay the same as other adults.
meme
says...
3:14pm Wed 5 Dec 12
Like it or not the UK is broke. There wil be huge negative changes to our lifestyles over the next 10 years and its welfare /pensions and well meaning spendthrifts that are the major architects of what will be the UK's finacial implosion
inthesticks
says...
3:37pm Wed 5 Dec 12
meme wrote:So are you suggesting all poor pensioners have squandered money during their lives?
If we tax/charge well off pensioners more than poor ones what's the incentive to save for retirement? We may as well all be looked after by the state in our old age and have a great time getting there
Like it or not the UK is broke. There wil be huge negative changes to our lifestyles over the next 10 years and its welfare /pensions and well meaning spendthrifts that are the major architects of what will be the UK's finacial implosion
Giving pensioners a fuel allowance when they have a million in the building society is not good economic sense in my opinion.
Those huge economic changes you talk about are here already and it`s the poorer people who are hit hardest, I bet you believed the we`re all in it together line aswell.
E=MC^2
says...
4:58pm Wed 5 Dec 12
meme
says...
5:03pm Wed 5 Dec 12
AND if you really believe its as bad as its going to get now you are inhabiting the defecit ignorers world.
We wont be able to pay these benefits as we will be bust like Greece Spain France and Ireland. Its just going to take us a little longer to get there. And dont believe we cannot go bust as the fools who ignore this say ...Look at Argentina, USA in 30's etc
We aint seen nothing yet
Omega Point
says...
9:29pm Wed 5 Dec 12
"
That is stupid comment
Oaklands Resident says...
10:31am Wed 5 Dec 12
While some Council services charges will go up by 5% from 1st January other rises are much higher.
For example, charges for pensioners playing bowls will have doubled in little over a year. They pay £3 per hour (up from £1-50 an hour in December 2011) while other adults will have to find £4 an hour (a 60% increase).
Concessionary charges (again pensioners being hit the hardest) are up by 33% to £7 an hour in the same period.
Bulky waste collection charges are increased to £35.
There are other huge increases which are being disguised by the council’s reference to "averages"
These are all being introduced in order to pay off the increased interest payments on the money being borrowed by the Council to pay for trips to Cannes, an “arts barge” etc