Labour, Tory and LibDem councillors have voted not even to consider the issue of paying the Real Living Wage to all workers delivering Wirral Council services. Twenty-three local authorities in England pay the ‘RLW’ to contractors and staff working for outsourced providers too.
But in Wirral borough on Merseyside, two years after all parties agreed to pay the Real Living Wage, more than half of care home providers in the borough don’t pass on the wage to workers – and video of a council committee session show a Green member of the committee, former Labour councillor Jo Bird, being talked over and condescended to by the Labour council leader as she tried to raise the issue for the sake of low-paid staff. The same individual had given the first opportunities to speak to the Tory group leader and Wirral Council’s chief executive, who is paid around £180,000 a year.