Wage accredited businesses will be championed on the council's website and receive a personal visit from a senior member of the council to officially recognise their accreditation.
Councillor Roxanne Mashari, Cabinet Member for Employment and Skills at Brent Council, said:
“We are committed to championing the Living Wage and tackling the root causes of poverty in our borough. We know that paying the Living Wage makes good business sense as it incentivises staff and helps to recruit and retain the best people, whilst reducing absenteeism. This new policy today aims to create a further incentive for businesses in Brent to take the step towards paying their staff the Living Wage. Many hard-working people on low wages struggle to make ends meet and it is up to councils like ours to do everything we can to ensure that a fair day's work leads to a fair day's pay.”
It is anticipated that up to 200 businesses in Brent could benefit from this policy.
TUC calls on government to prevent care workers being illegally paid
5 February 2015
One hundred MPs have signed an Early Day Motion saying they “strenuously suggest that HMRC launch a programme of proactive investigations into the sector to help end non- compliance with the NMW". The Trades Union Congress (TUC) says that care workers looking after the most vulnerable people in the UK – the elderly and the disabled - are being illegally paid below the national minimum wage of £6.50 an hour. And that according to the National Audit Office a staggering 220,000 care workers are being exploited in this way. This is in part because, whilst the advertised rate may be above the minimum wage, most care workers are on zero hours or temporary agency contracts, with the employers cutting out paid time wherever they can. A full day on the job can translate into only a handful of paid hours. In 2011 and 2013 HMRC investigated the care sector and found that only half of care providers were paying the national minimum wage. Thanks to their investigation several companies were forced to pay care workers the money that they were legally owed. Now, because of the ongoing cuts to care budgets and a lack of follow up action from HMRC, the situation has become worse and now nearly a quarter of a million care workers across the UK are being illegally paid. This practice is hurting people who need care. Vince Cable could make a difference. Mr Cable could instruct HMRC to investigate again, to name and shame some of the biggest care providers in the country but so far he hasn’t. One way employers under-pay home care workers is by only paying them for the time they spend caring for people in their own homes. This means the time they spend traveling between visits is unpaid.
Read the full article .
Low Pay Commission recommend a 3 percent increase on the Adult Rate of NMW
26 February 2015
The Low Pay Commission (LPC) has written to the secretary of State to lay out their recommendations for an increase to the National Minimum Wage rates from October 2015.
CIPP Policy News Journal
08/04/2015, Page 240 of 521
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