SOAS Living Wage Campaign

September 2008 - UPDATE

As a result of pressure from the Campaign, the School's contractor will change from Ocean Contract Cleaning to ISS Facility Services following the retendering of the contract over the summer and as of September this year (2008) all the cleaning staff are to be paid the minimum of the London Living Wage (currently £7.45 per hour) with pro rata increases for those staff such as supervisors who were above the national minimum wage (effectively an across the board increase of 34%)!
A commitment has also been made to uprate this figure in line with the LLW in future years.
Finally, again in line with the Governing Body decision, ISS Facility Services are currently negotiating a recognition agreement with UNISON on behalf of all staff covered by the SOAS cleaning contract.
While the SOAS Living Wage Campaign position remains that these staff should be brought back in house on full University terms and conditions, clearly this has been seen as a great step forward and has already made a real material diference to the lives of cleaning staff at SOAS. While the fight goes on, the SOAS Living Wage Campaign would like to thank everyone who played a role in getting us to where we are today and particularly to the SOAS cleaners themselves who were central to the campaign throughout.

June 2008 - UPDATE - 13 JUNE 2008

VICTORY!!! (At least partially)
SOAS Governing Body voted today to pay SOAS cleaning staff a minimum of the London Living Wage from September 2008 when the old contract expires and to ensure that whoever takes over the cleaning contract in September commits to negotiating a trade union recognition agreement to give added protection to SOAS cleaning staff.
While the Campaign goes on the SOAS Living Wage Campaign welcomes the step forward taken today by the SOAS Governing Body which we believe befits the kind of Institution that we work and study within.

June 2008

LOBBY SOAS GOVERNING BODY MEETING - 9.30am, 13 JUNE 2008
Despite it being held on the last day of term, the SOAS Living Wage Campaign has called a lobby of the SOAS Governing Body meeting from 9.30am on the 13 June 2008. This meeting is scheduled to make the decision on the future of the SOAS outsourced cleaning contract and the various options from the status quo which would leave our cleaners on poverty pay through the payment of the London Living Wage while leaving the cleaners outsourced to the SOAS Living Wage Campaign's preferred option of bringing these staff back in-house on full University staff rates of pay and terms and conditions. We urge as many staff and students to try and make it along to the lobby.

May 2008 - Update

SOAS Community Consultative Ballot - RESULT
With 496 staff and students voting in the SOAS Community Consultative Ballot over 96% voted in favour of bringing our cleaning staff in-house with the remaing 3.6% voting for the more limited London Living Wage option. Not a single vote was cast for the status quo!!
This is a fantastic result and will bring pressure to bare on the upcoming SOAS Governing Body meeting in June which is scheduled to make a decision on the issue. The SOAS Living Wage Campaign would like to thank all those who took part.

May 2008

The Campaign has organised a SOAS Community Consultative Ballot ahead of the School's Resources and Planning Committee which meets on May 20th and which will be making recommendations to the SOAS Governing Body on the future of the SOAS cleaning contract. We felt that the whole SOAS community should be allowed to express its views and will be ensuring that the result of the ballot will be communicated to this Committee ahead of the meeting. A copy of the SOAS Living Wage Campaign's leaflet for the ballot can be downloaded here (pdf) and a copy of the ballot paper is available here (pdf). Please note that staff and students will only be allowed to vote on the production of a valid student or staff ID card and that records will be checked to ensure that people only vote once.

April 2008

The Campaign held a successful Teach-in that saw activists from different parts of the School's community come together to discuss the wider issues surrounding the campaign focussing back onto what we need to be doing at SOAS.

February 2008

The Campaign has finally received a summary of the Outsourcing Contract Review report which is available here (pdf). We have made real progress in ensuring that fair treatment of low paid outsourced staff at SOAS is firmly on the agenda! Now let's ensure that the School adopts the option our cleaners are fighting for and that these staff are brought in house on the same terms and conditions as all other staff within SOAS.

December 2007

The Campaign held a lively well attended lobby of the SOAS Governing Body demanding an end to poverty pay for SOAS cleaners and other staff working for outsourced contractors.

November 2007

The consultants conducting the Outsourcing Contract Review will be presenting their report to School management in December 2007. We need to ensure we make clear to the School what outcome we want!

September 2007

The School has had to launch an Outsourcing Contract Review after pressure from the Campaign. Preliminary meetings to discuss this were held in early September 2007 but we will have to keep the pressure on if we are to get a positive outcome. A copy of the terms of reference of the Outsourcing Contract Review is available here (pdf)