ANY organisation that’s serious about tackling poverty in Scotland should be committed to paying the real living wage.

That’s the message from Allan Johnstone of Voluntary Action Scotland (VAS) who is encouraging other employers, particularly those in the third sector, to sign up for Scottish Living Wage Accreditation.

“There are a lot of service providers in the third sector but while some of them have welcomed a commitment to the living wage, others have not – yet it is a great way of benefiting the community and a step towards tackling in-work poverty. People’s lives can be improved through paying the living wage,” he said.

VAS signed up for living wage accreditation on a point of principle as all six staff were already paid above that level.

However, Johnstone has been pleased to discover that accreditation has provided a good platform for broaching the subject with sub-contractors, suppliers and other organisations.

“We are the umbrella body for our members across Scotland and a lot of our work as a network is around addressing poverty and tackling inequality,” he said. “We signed up because it is a practical thing to do to tackle poverty but when we looked into the details we realised we could look at other things like our supply chain. We found that accreditation gave us a good opportunity to open up discussion with those other organisations and encourage them to consider what they are paying.”

VAS occupies part of the Robertson Trust building in Glasgow and the accreditation process gave the organisation the chance to make sure the cleaners of the building were being paid the living wage. The Robertson Trust themselves are living wage accredited.

“Previously we had not thought to ask but this gave us the opportunity to do so and also ask our IT contractor to make sure they were doing the same,” explained Johnstone.

Voluntary Action Scotland connects Third Sector Interfaces (TSIs) with each other and national organisations and supports and develops them to have a greater impact locally. VAS also enables the TSI Network to have a voice at national level.

The interfaces bring together voices from across the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors and amplifies these to local planning and decision makers.

They aim to build empowered, resilient communities with a thriving third sector at their heart. Each operates in ways that reflect local circumstance and need, and are responsive to and driven by their third sector locally.

For example, Voluntary Action Shetland are at the centre of youth volunteering on the islands. Their youth development worker visits all of Shetland’s secondary schools to provide young people with information about volunteering, the Saltire Awards, and volunteering opportunities available in their area.

When young people sign up for the Saltire Award scheme through Voluntary Action Shetland, they are supported both with individual and group volunteering and have the opportunity of being nominated for a Shetland Youth Volunteering Award.

Further south, Volunteer Midlothian run a quarterly Volunteer Managers’ Forum which brings together individuals who coordinate volunteering in local VIOs across Midlothian, giving them an opportunity to share practice and network.