School cooks in Reading to get a real Living Wage

I followed up on on school cooks getting a real Living Wage at a recent council meeting. In summary they will do shortly! Question and answer below.

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Real Living Wage for School Cooks
The Green Party has long been campaigning for everyone in Reading to receive the Living Wage Foundation Living Wage. This will make a big difference to tackling poverty. The Council recently produced a report on phasing in the Living Wage Foundation Living Wage for people working on the school meals contract. The recommendations were not voted on though as the report was pulled from the ACE Committee.
I would like to see school cooks getting the Real Living Wage as soon as possible. Please can I get an update on progress to make sure people working on the school meals contract get a Living Wage?

REPLY by Councillor Jones (Lead Councillor for Education):

As councillors know, this Council is a publically recognised supporter of the Living Wage Foundation Living Wage, as the plaque in the council offices foyer proudly declares.

The report, to which Councillor White refers, was wrongly included on the agenda of the last ACE Committee meeting and was a first draft prepared by council officers. As it did not have my support nor that of the Labour Group, it was withdrawn from the agenda.

I am pleased to advise that the contract extension has now been negotiated with the current provider of school meals and this includes the payment of the real living wage in full to all staff from the beginning of that extension later this summer - we made it clear to Council officers and the contractor that we would accept nothing less.