On the money: Anne Morgan wraps up the living wage campaign

‘Fifteen new accreditations within the Quaker community have been achieved.’

The Quaker Living Wage Campaign was established in 2015, following Quaker Equality Week. It was the result of a multi-faceted concern about: inequality and low wages; increasing use of food banks; a need to hold second and third jobs; and debt. Its purpose was to encourage Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) and all organisations associated with it to pay the real living wage and become accredited with the Living Wage Foundation.

The group established by Lancaster Meeting to carry out the campaign began by asking our own Area Meeting to become accredited. BYM, Quaker Social Action and York Area Meeting already were.

Over the last eight years we have approached the clerks and trustees of: the seventy Area Meetings in BYM; the Quaker schools; Woodbrooke; the Quaker Tapestry; Quakers in Business; and twenty Quaker charities providing accommodation for the elderly. We spoke at Yearly Meeting Gathering at Warwick. We also approached: Lancaster City Council; the Universities of Lancaster, Central London, Cumbria and Manchester; and local charities and businesses. 

Fifteen new accreditations within the Quaker community have been achieved, including Woodbrooke, the Quaker Tapestry and thirteen Area Meetings. In addition, six Area Meetings tell us they pay the real living wage but will not be applying to become accredited. Eight have told us they do not have employees.

A real problem in trying to get Area Meetings involved has been the way in which resident Friends and wardens are compensated. We learned that many Meetings offset the accommodation they provide against the wage they pay. The Living Wage Foundation does not accept this practice. Every advertisement for wardens in the Friend this year has offered accommodation as part of the package. This issue will continue to be a stumbling block to accreditation for Area Meetings.

That said, forty-three Area Meetings have not engaged with us at all.

Our conversations with the bursars of Quaker schools have revealed other difficulties. Accreditation requires that salary adjustments are made within six months of the publication of new living wage scales each November. This does not fit school timeframes for salary changes and budgeting, which are tied to the academic year, even for their cleaners and hospitality staff.

None of the twenty Quaker care homes and sheltered accommodation trusts we wrote to acknowledged our letter.

As a group we feel that we have taken this concern as far as we are able, and that it is time to lay down this campaign. Lancaster Quaker Meeting for Worship for Business on 3 July agreed to this. We have asked our Area Meeting trustees to maintain our accreditation as a living wage employer.

Ann Morgan, clerk to Lancaster Meeting, on behalf of the Quaker Living Wage Campaign Group.

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Comments

Thanks for all the work. Overall, this is a depressing resume of the Quaker response: 50% of AMs refused to engage, Quaker schools let adjustments get in the way and Quaker care homes and sheltered accommodation don’t even acknowledge the issue. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

By doreen.osborne@outlook.com on 22nd July 2022 - 12:10

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