Portsmouth council could spend £2m on the lowest paid by adopting 'real living wage' for contract staff

Portsmouth city councillors have agreed to keep pushing to become a real living wage accredited employer - meaning staff must be paid the real living wage of £9.30 an hour - more than the legally required national living wage of £8.72.

The council agreed to pay its in-house staff the living wage back in 2018, however, contracted and agency employees - who mainly work in social care - were not included.

During an employment committee meeting this week members agreed to establish a working group to find out the exact cost of increasing the wages of contracted staff.

Speaking at the virtual meeting Labour councillor, Cal Corkery, said: 'I know there's been some discussion about whether it’s the right time.

'My argument would be now is exactly the right time. We have seen six months of social care workers on zero-hour contracts putting their lives on the line and even losing their lives and not even on the living wage. It should be a priority to push this through.'

Officers reported that agency staff from more than 650 contractors were used by the council. And they estimated the cost to the council to increase the wages would be around £2m - although more detailed work would be needed.

Council leader, Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson, said: 'I am slightly disappointed with the report, I thought it would be fairly simple to contact every organisation to ask what would be the real effect of moving to the living wage for everybody. I hope that work can happen fairly quickly.'

But Tory councillors had concerns over the financial impact of the move, especially amid the pandemic.

Group leader Cllr Donna Jones said: 'If Councillor Vernon-Jackson is serious about implementing the living wage he needs to put his money where his mouth is and put £2m instantly into the budget.

'My personal position is now is not the time to do that but I think the report is good. It's sensible to keep this item on the agenda and keep reviewing that.'

Cllr Matt Atkin added: 'What is the value of doing a piece of work at the moment contacting 650 contractors to get them to calculate how much to charge the council when ultimately it’s going to come to the conclusion that we can't afford it at the moment?

'We likely have departments that are already facing a shortfall. We are going to be looking at a referendum on council tax if we go forward with this.'

Officers will bring further details of the costs to a future meeting so the council can pursue accreditation from the Living Wage Foundation.

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