Living Wage: NDNA Commitment

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Finance – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 2:00 pm on 16 November 2021.

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Photo of Conor Murphy Conor Murphy Sinn Féin 2:00, 16 November 2021

The Executive's living wage accreditation that was announced today applies to the Civil Service. We are encouraging and working with all public-sector organisations to make sure that that rolls out through the public sector generally. Care workers do an absolutely invaluable job. If that was not recognised before, it has certainly been recognised over the course of the pandemic. As you said, many of them are being paid the minimum wage.

As part of the procurement rules for new contracts, which we have changed, from June 2022, anyone who secures a government contract under which they would be employed by various trusts will have to pay their staff the Living Wage Foundation living wage. That will be a substantial hourly increase for those workers. Today's announcement is not just good news for civil servants and public-sector workers; as we roll on into this and continue to do work on the living wage, it will also be good news for thousands of workers. Of course, a whole range of anti-poverty measures are needed. The Executive will have a role across all of those to try to ensure that people here enjoy a decent standard of living, particularly in the time of this cost-of-living crisis.