Response to Living Wage (Scotland) Bill

I was pleased recently that the City Council agreed to an amendment which I put forward which committed the council to looking at paying the Living Wage to those contracting business with the council and also that the council should respond to John Park MSP's Members' Bill on the Living Wage.  The Council produced its response at the Policy and Resources Committee last night.


It is important that we take the lead, we did that by paying the Living Wage to Dundee City Council employees.  I don’t think that we should stop there, it is important that we give a clear message that we think that anyone working on public sector contracts should be paid the Living Wage. 

I think that this response to the consultation is welcome I think that it could have gone further in being more supportive of the aims of John Park’s Members’ Bill.  However, I am clear that we have a moral duty if we think that the Living Wage should be paid to City Council employees to say that it should also be paid to those whom we indirectly employ on contracts.

We have a duty to promote the well-being of the people of Dundee; improving their pay would go some way towards doing this.  The council has huge economic power I think that we should be making sure that we are doing everything we can to ensure that that economic power is used for the benefit of all of the people of Dundee.