Premiership clubs tackled over failure to pay the Living Wage

CHURCH LEADERS and MPs have joined a fans’ campaign for the big Manchester football clubs to pay the voluntary Living Wage to subcontracted stewards, caterers and other staff.

Bishop John Arnold of Salford signed an open letter to Manchester City and Manchester United, which was released ahead of last Sunday’s match between them at Old Trafford.

Many subcontracted workers are paid the Minimum Wage, currently £6.70 an hour rather than the Living Wage, which is £7.85 an hour.

“Both football clubs have very substantial means and they are well publicised for offering very generous top salaries to their players,” Bishop Arnold told The Tablet. “Surely it cannot be that these clubs cannot afford what would amount to an almost insignificant additional sum to their overall wage bill.”

The bishop said that establishing a Living Wage is a mark of justice in society. Both clubs, he pointed out, are credited with sponsoring local initiatives within the community.

The Premier League has committed all clubs to paying the Living Wage to permanent, directly employed staff by the start of next season. Several, including City and United, already do so. The issue is the part-time staff, of which there can be hundreds on match days.

“For either, or both, of Manchester’s two biggest football clubs to agree to become accredited Living Wage employers would be hugely symbolic,” said another signatory to the letter, Niall Cooper, director of Manchester-based Church Action on Poverty, which helped to set up the Greater Manchester Living Wage campaign two years ago.

“When they [the clubs] can afford to pay their players hundreds of thousands of pounds a week, and make tens of millions from TV rights and commercial deals, there is clearly no reason why they can’t also pay their stewards, caterers and ground staff a decent Living Wage,” he added.