Letter from John McDonnell, MP to Birkbeck Governors, March 2009

Dear Governor

I am writing to you in order to confirm my support for the Birkbeck London Living Wage Campaign. As a former Birkbeck student and an MP who has always supported the college in Parliament, I feel most strongly that that you are doing a grave disservice to loyal and hard working staff if you agree to continue paying them below a rate of £7.45 per hour.

The public sector was traditionally an area where cleaners, catering & security staff were paid an adequate wage and had reasonable working conditions. Unfortunately from the 80’s, privatisation led to these workers undergoing an assault on their wages and conditions of service. This immoral situation has now affected Birkbeck staff with their jobs being contracted out, their wages reduced to poverty levels and their contractual arrangements becoming tenuous and much worsened.

It is unacceptable for a college which is renowned for its commitment to extending opportunities for working people, to exploit its most vulnerable workers in allowing them to be paid poverty wages. It is self-evident that it is impossible to live decently in London on the minimum wage of £5.73 per hour, particularly when there is no sick pay, holiday pay or the normal rights at work that you or I would expect. I am sure you would agree that we should not expect others to work in conditions and for an income that we would find intolerable.

I intend to raise this matter in the House of Commons through an Early Day Motion. In addition, I will be recruiting other MPs to form a Parliamentary Support Group in order to publicise this issue.

I implore the College Management to re-think the issue of contracting out services. So many contractors and sub-contractors are clearly taking advantage of their workers that failing to bring these services back in-house would place the college in a morally untenable position. In addition, you will find that the college is getting a bad name for exploiting vulnerable staff in ignoring the harmful consequences of privatising essential services.

I call on you to uphold Birkbeck's mission statement of providing an 'inclusive working environment for its staff' where they can 'develop their full potential' by paying Birkbeck cleaning and catering staff at least the London Living Wage of £7.45 an hour plus benefits.

Yours sincerely,

John McDonnell, MP

18th March 2009