Manchester University Fair Pay Festival
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Frances O’Grady speaks at the Fair Pay Festival on 6 November 2014 at Students Union’s Club Academy, Manchester University. For more information visit http://mancunion.com/2014/12/14/the-students-union-will-become-a-living-wage-accredited-employer/ |
Thanks Conor and thanks Matt.
Thanks to the Student Union for inviting me to speak.
And thanks to those of you who joined the TUC’s demonstration in London a few weeks ago.
It’s great to be here today and to be involved in your Fair Pay Festival.
I was a student here at Manchester Uni, though I have to confess it was quite a long time ago now.
Suffice it to say flares were still in fashion.
The Smiths were an up-and-coming band.
And best of all, you get could a pint of beer in the union for less than 30 pence.
Friends, don’t let anyone knock the 1970s.
I want to talk to you today about the compelling case for a living wage.
About why we need fair wages for all.
And about what we can do together to make that a reality.
But I want to begin by applauding your absolutely brilliant campaign for a living wage here at Manchester University.
A great example of a student union fighting for social and economic justice.
And I hope the university will respond positively and become accredited as a living wage employer.
I pay tribute to Salford University, Wirral County Council and others in the public sector, and the likes of KPMG, Deloitte and Barclays in the private sector who have already signed up.
Brothers and sisters, the living wage is important because it cuts across so many of the contemporary challenges facing Britain.
How we address the crisis in our living standards.
How we tackle cancerous levels of inequality.
And how we build a stronger, fairer and more stable economy for the future.
With less than 200 days to go before the general election, I want the living wage – and fair pay more broadly – to be right at the heart of our political debate.
And we in the trade union movement, like many of you, believe the case for action is simply unanswerable.
Why?
Because poverty pay ought to have no place in one of the world’s richest economies, in a country where there is so much jaw-dropping wealth.
In Britain today, one in six workers earns less than the living wage of £7.85, or £9.15 in London.
Here in the North West, it’s almost a quarter.
According to KPMG, that’s 570,000 people.
Many are women.
Many are young.
And many are migrants.
But they all work incredibly hard in return for a pittance.
Imagine what it’s like.
Imagine what it’s like trying to raise a family on that kind of money.
Imagine what it’s like finding somewhere half decent to live.
Imagine what it’s like not to be able to go on holiday or treat the kids.
Well, this is how life is for millions of our fellow citizens.
Increasingly we are a country of grotesque extremes.
A country of food banks and Michelin-starred restaurants.
Where benefits are slashed for the poor and taxes cut for the rich.
Where slum landlords rake it in as mansions stand empty.
Think for a moment about what’s been happening to our pay packets.
Ordinary workers’ real wages have been stagnant for over a decade.
Yet last year, top bosses saw their pay surge by a colossal 20 per cent.
Talk about blatant double standards.
It’s as if there’s one rule for us – and no rules for them.
At a time when big business is sitting on a record cash pile of nearly half a trillion pounds, don’t let anybody tell us the money isn’t there to deliver decent pay for all.
The late, great leader of the Transport & General Workers Union Jack Jones could not have put it better when he said:
“Low wages degrade the firms that pay them.
Low wages cannot be justified on the argument that the firm would not survive – if it cannot pay decent wages, it should not survive”.
But the case for fair pay isn’t just moral; it’s also economic.
Delivering a decent wage for all is the bright thing to do as well as the right thing to do.
There’s a growing consensus that low pay has a very high cost.
It undermines our ability to compete in the global economy.
Increases levels of household debt.
And costs the taxpayer billions when it comes to in-work benefits.
In effect, us subsidising employers who don’t pay their workers enough to live on.
A national scandal.
Moving to a living wage – and decent pay generally – would address many of these problems.
It would help us break free from our low pay, low productivity trap.
Not just by rebuilding demand in our economy.
Nor just by injecting money into the regions that need it most.
But also by nurturing a more committed workforce.
So what can we do to make change happen?
How do we move from a minimum wage to a living wage and from a living wage to a fair wage?
Well, here a few suggestions from me.
First: let’s encourage as many employers as possible to sign up to the living wage, highlighting the organisational and reputational benefits.
Two: let’s make sure that every public sector organisation – local authorities, schools, hospitals – is committed to paying the living wage.
Three: let’s use the £200-billion plus budget for public procurement to maximum effect, ensuring that goods and services are only provided by private firms who pay the living wage.
Four: let’s put workers onto company remuneration committees, so we restore a sense of fairness to the way reward is distributed.
Five: let’s have higher pay rates in the sectors that can afford them, administered through new institutions bringing together government, employers and unions.
And six: let’s have stronger unions and more collective bargaining, because history has consistently shown that this is the best way to win higher pay for low-paid workers.
Even today – in our flexible labour market and after years of economic turmoil – the trade union sword of justice is alive and well, with a pay premium of around 11 per cent.
So let’s not just to campaign for a living wage; let’s also to organise for one.
I’ll finish on this note.
Fair pay is an idea whose time has come.
Morally, economically, organisationally – it’s the right thing to do.
Be in no doubt: the arguments are on our side.
And this is a debate we’re winning.
Some influential figures in the Conservative Party – which of course famously opposed the minimum wage – are now in favour of a living wage.
The Sun newspaper has published gushing editorials waxing lyrical about the benefits.
And even the director-general of the CBI has urged firms to pay their workers more.
Now I’m not sure about the merits of having the Tories, the Sun and the CBI agreeing with you, but frankly the bigger the consensus we have for change the better.
But ultimately change won’t happen because it’s sanctioned by the great and the good in politics, the media and business.
No, it will be people like you who win fair pay for the millions of people who need it most.
Trade unionists who press employers to sign up.
Campaigners who refuse to take no for an answer.
Young people who want a fairer and more just society.
So my message today is simple.
Keep up the good work.
Keep fighting for fair pay.
And keep making a difference.
Thanks for listening.