ALMOST three quarters of temporary staff employed by Glasgow and Edinburgh based recruitment agency, Brightwork, are now being hired at or above the real living wage
This follows year-on-year increases in the number of Brightwork’s clients paying the living wage to temporary staff. In 2015, a total of 63.12 per cent were paid the living wage. Last year, 67.23 per cent had reached that level and this year, 74.38 per cent of temporary workers were paid the living wage.
Since October 2015, Brightwork has ensured that all directly employed staff are paid the real living wage, which currently stands at £8.75. Since then it has consistently used “nudge power”, and a series of discounts, to persuade its clients to pay temporary staff the living wage.
Brightwork is a Recognised Service Provider working alongside the Living Wage Foundation. Across the UK, there are 100 Recognised Service Providers, who offer living wage options for contracted staff, ensuring a real living wage is always possible when outsourcing services.
One such temporary worker is Nosa Sunday, 34, from Nigeria, who works for a facilities management and care provider to Glasgow City Council and is a Brightwork client who has benefitted from the living wage.
“Brightwork found me through agency work at Glasgow City Council, and I get enough shifts a month to get by,” he said. “I found out afterwards that Brightwork has been a consistent campaigner to make sure that the rate I get paid is the living wage. I think it’s a great company.”
Brightwork says it intends to continue promoting the living wage as ethical and good corporate behaviour, as well as an excellent way of boosting retention, minimising absenteeism, and increasing loyalty.
“Our work on the living wage has been showing great results, and we will keep pushing more and more businesses to ensure a fairer future for all Scots,” said Shan Saba, business development director at Brightwork.
The living wage has been steadily gaining traction in Scotland, with more than 1040 employers — nearly double the number for the same time last year — now holding living wage accreditation. Those living wage employers, alongside Recognised Service Providers like Brightwork commit to paying the real living wage to all staff working for their core business.
“We applaud companies like Brightwork that choose to pay the real living wage, and who use their influence to encourage fair dealing,” said Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance. “The progress that Brightwork has reported shows that businesses are increasingly recognising that paying the real living wage is not only the right thing to do, but makes good business sense”.
The UK living wage for outside London is currently £8.75 per hour. These figures are calculated annually by the Resolution Foundation and overseen by the Living Wage Commission, based on the best available evidence on living standards in the UK.
The accreditation programme in Scotland launched in April 2014. It is an initiative from The Poverty Alliance, in partnership with the Living Wage Foundation, and is funded by the Scottish Government
The Living Wage Foundation gives recognition to service providers for promoting the real living wage and more than 25,000 Scottish people have had a pay rise thanks to the real living wage initiative.
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