The successfull Justice For Cleaner Campaign

Injustice lurks in the form of unfair pay, right beneath your noses...

The SOAS Living Wage Campaign was set up in early 2007 to counter abuses suffered by low paid out-sourced contract workers within the School’s community. It was initiated following a series of protests at SOAS when it was uncovered that a group of cleaners had not been paid for over three months by the University’s cleaning contractor. These were workers earning the minimum wage, £5.35 per hour at the time, many with families to support.

Staff and students at SOAS were outraged to discover the appalling employment conditions these largely migrant workers faced at the hands of one of the UK’s most prestigious Higher Education institutions. Following the example of the Justice for Janitors campaign in the US - and the largely successful support networks built on US campuses such as Harvard and TUFTS - and inspired by the T&GWU/ London Citizens Justice for Cleaners campaign here in the UK the SOAS Living Wage Campaign was launched.

It brings low paid cleaning, catering and security staff together with student activists, the SOAS Students’ Union, UNISON (the union representing SOAS cleaners and other low paid staff) and the lecturers union the UCU in demanding that the SOAS administration ends these abuses and ensures that all those working within the institution are treated with respect, have access to a trade union, receive basic benefits such as sick pay and are paid a realistic living wage for working in one of the most expensive cities in the world.

OUR PLATFORM:

**SOAS must implement the London living wage with benefits for all SOAS workers, whether directly-employed or hired through outside contractors. Studies of the local cost of living in London, such as those conducted by the Greater London Authority Living Wage Unit and Queen Mary, University of London, Department of Geography, suggest a living wage standard of at least £7.20 per hour plus benefits. The wage standard must be adjusted annually for inflation.**

**SOAS must bring all cleaning, catering and security work back in-house. In recent years, SOAS has outsourced many service-sector jobs in order to slash wages and benefits, eliminate job security, bust campus unions, and deny responsibility for the resulting suffering workers experience. The damage done to workers must be reversed by bringing service workers back in-house-meaning that they will be employed directly by SOAS with full university staff terms and conditions.**

**SOAS must adopt an ethical contractor policy with a commitment to only engaging contractors who meet basic employment standards including trade union recognition. The right to trade union representation, basic benefits such as full sick-pay, a pension and 28 days holidays must be built into such agreements. Creating a less oppositional climate for union organising at SOAS would be consistent with the university's claims that it supports collective bargaining.**

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