The Chair will open the meeting.

The Chair opened the meeting and said that the Review Group should use the time to plan ahead.

The scoping document sets out the terms of the review that the Review Group has been tasked with undertaking.

The attached scope was presented to the Scrutiny Committee on 7 September 2017.  The Scrutiny Officer will advise the Panel of any changes agreed by the Committee.

The Review Group noted that the Scrutiny Committee had set the terms of reference for their review.

The following documents are included for noting and reference:

·         Oxford Living Wage motion to Council, 19 November 2007

·         Living Wage report to the City Executive Board, 20 May 2009

·         Report to Scrutiny Committee, 2 March 2015

·         Scrutiny Report to the City Executive Board, 12 March 2015.

The Panel commented that the first and third clauses of the motion passed by Council in 2007 had been fulfilled but that further progress would be welcome on the second clause, which was about ensuring that every worker in the city earned a living wage.

The Panel also noted that they were not the first group to push this issue – the Scrutiny Committee and other scrutiny panels had previously made recommendations about promoting the Oxford Living Wage more widely.

The Review Group have asked to invite evidence from large and small employers, business groups, workers who are directly affected by low pay, and agencies, professionals and faith groups in the city that support low paid workers.

The following people have agreed to attend this meeting as witnesses to speak to the Review Group about issues related to low pay and the promotion of the Oxford Living Wage:

·         Dr Joe McManners, former city councillor who proposed the Living Wage council motion in November 2007;

Dr McManners was not present at the meeting.  The Review Group agreed to invite representatives of the following organisations to future meetings:

·         The retailer John Lewis

·         The major bus companies operating in the city

·         A2Dominion property group

·         The emerging local living wage campaign

·         The Citizens’ Advice Bureau

Open discussion on implementing the Oxford Living Wage across Oxford.

The Review Group thought there would be some merit is focusing promotion of the OLW on employers whose operations are focused on Oxford as they are more likely to have flexibility to vary wage rates than employers who operate across the country.

The Review Group also expressed support for an Oxford Living Wage logo that had the authority of the Council behind it.  It was suggested that the Council could consider allocating funding to get such a scheme off the ground.

The Review Group asked for legal advice on how the Council can encourage payment of the Oxford Living Wage through procurement.  The Council’s Monitoring Officer has provided the following response:

It is unlawful (or at least unenforceable) for one legal entity to seek to dictate the terms and conditions under which another legal entity employs its staff.  We can, however, in letting a contract to a supplier make it a contractual obligation that the staff engaged in the delivery of the service to the Council are paid in accordance with the Oxford Living Wage provisions.  We would not however be able to insist that the contractor’s entire work force are paid in this way.

The chief problem, I think, comes with the use of sub-contractors engaged by the principal contractor to deliver the service.  Here, with the much more indirect nature of the supply, all I think we reasonably do is seek to encourage the principal contractor to use sub-contractors who comply with the Oxford Living Wage requirements.  Should they fail to do so, I think that would be a consideration we could properly take into account in regard to any (for example) contract renewal.

The Review Group noted the legal advice and agreed to invite a legal services officer to a future meeting to further explore what more was possible in terms of encouraging and requiring contractors and subcontractors to pay the Oxford Living Wage and what the risks and constraints were.

The Chair has asked officers to model the financial impacts on the Council of raising the lowest pay grades to the rate of the London Living Wage (£9.75 per hour) and £10 per hour.

The Scrutiny Officer will provide a verbal update.

The Scrutiny Officer explained that at the Chair’s request he had sought advice from Payroll on what the cost implications would be of the Council raising minimum salaries to the level of the London Living Wage (£9.75 per hour) and to £10 per hour.

He said the cost of raising wages to £9.75 an hour, including additional pension and National Insurance contributions, would be a maximum of £39,240 per year.

To raise wages to a minimum of £10 per hour would benefit 57 staff and cost a maximum of £76,972 per year. 

The Review Group also noted that the Council’s leisure partner Fusion Lifestyle pays its staff the Oxford Living Wage but makes a charge back to the Council but these figures only related to staff employed directly by the Council.

These figures were in the context of a net budget requirement of approximately £20m and gross annual service expenditure in the order of £80m-£100m (of which about £55m related to employee expenses).

The Review Group also noted that approximately half of the Council’s total workforce would be TUPE transferred to the new trading company on their existing terms but that the company may decide to offer alternative employment packages in future to new starters (although there was no suggestion the company would pay less than the Oxford Living Wage).

The Review Group may wish to invite written evidence from low paid workers, members of the public and others via an open access ‘call for evidence’.  This could take the form of an online survey available via the Council’s Consultations webpage.

The Review Group is asked to consider:

1.    Whether to proceed with a survey

2.    Which group(s) to invite evidence from

3.    What questions to ask

Example questions:

·         Please could you describe your experience of the issue of low pay in Oxford?

·         The City Council promotes the payment of an ‘Oxford Living Wage’ of £9.26 per hour as a minimum (£18,303 per year for an employee working 38 hours per week).  This compares to the legal minimum of £7.50 per hour (£14,820 per year) for over 25s.  Thinking about the cost of living in Oxford, do you think the level of the Oxford Living Wage is: a) too high, b) too low, c) about right, d) don’t know.   

The Review Group requested an online survey asking people about their views on whether they think there should be an Oxford Living Wage and the rates of the OLW, the National Living Wage for over-25s and the rate for under-25s.

The Review Group asked to see the survey and press release before they are issued and suggested that the Chair appears on the local radio.

The notes of the previous meeting are included for reference.

Agreed.

Meetings are scheduled as follows:

3 October 2017, 5pm

17 October 2017, 2pm

1 November 2017, 5pm

Noted.