London living wage and hotels

There was some good news on the jobs front yesterday if you are one of the 850 staff who work in one of the eight hotels in London managed by the InterContinental Hotels Group. But the fanfare of publicity comes with a caveat - there's always a but.

The managing director for the UK and Ireland, Stephen McCall made the announcement: "We've made a commitment to become a London living wage employer in all the London hotels we manage...over the next five years."

The Living Wage Campaign was started by the campaign group London Citizens in 2001. Since that time the Living Wage Foundation has accredited over 100 Living Wage Employers.

The reason the story caught my eye was that hotels in London are notoriously poor employers. So the fact that an international chain has made this commitment is something of a surprise. OK so they're not going to fully implement it for five years, but I think the fact that IHG have made a public commitment is a start.

I know of one hotel near Tower Bridge where if you queue up from 6.30 in the morning you stand a good chance of getting a day's work - and this has been the case for years. You are paid a pittance and they don't ask too many questions, they hassle you to clean as many rooms as possible, but they'll pay you cash at the end of the day.

I've never worked there but have pointed people I know in that direction - they tell me it's awful and that they shout at you constantly. This is only one example I know of but you do hear of horror stories often. All of which puts what IHG in quite a good light.

On the subject of  the London living wage the Evening Standard carried out a survey of the shops on Oxford Street before Christmas just gone. There was only a handful of those shops that paid the London living wage. This is supposed to be London's premier shopping street. It is clearly not so first class for the workers!