John Keenan – Journalist
AS NATIONAL Living Wage week draws to an end, businesses across the city are queuing up to congratulate each other on paying their workers the new rate of £7.85 an hour.
Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce, which runs the city’s Living Wage campaign for the council, said it had received a “fantastic amount of sign ups”.
A total of 2,000 workers at 150 companies in the city have seen their pay rise from £6.50 per hour to the new minimum of £7.85.
Not everybody was cock-a-hoop. Nick Mosley, director at the Brighton and Hove Food Festival, warned that enthusiasm for the Living Wage risks alienating firms in the tourism, hospitality and entertainment sector. It is true campaigners for the hourly rate for staff overlook employee benefits such as tips, meals, a free room or laundering uniforms.
The answer is to remove the competitive disadvantage by making the rate non-voluntary. A compulsory Living Wage would demolish the competitive barrier that organisations such as Picturehouse Cinemas – which runs the Duke of Yorks and Duke’s at Komedia – say prevents them from paying the going rate.
I understand Picturehouse Cinemas is in the midst of pay negotiations for 2015.
Friends of mine have told me they have snipped Picturehouse membership cards in protest at the treatment of cinema workers. I haven’t been so rash. I have tucked my card away in the hope Picturehouse management may have a change of heart.
Perhaps those running the Living Wage campaign in the city should get in touch with the cinema operator and persuade them of the benefits of joining the likes of City College, NixonMcInnes, Wired Sussex and other forward thinking employers in the city.
That really would be a cause to celebrate.
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