Last week, Ealing Living Wage Alliance (ELWA) joined and supported UNISON action outside General Synod, as the church discussed its position on the cost of living crisis. ELWA raised concerns that thousands of Church of England schools have failed to accredit with Living Wage Foundation which the church pledged to UNISON in 2014 that it would do.
@EalingLWA joined @unisontheunion outside the General Synod yesterday in the hope that @CofE_Education might 'practice what they preach' and deliver the promised @LivingWageUK rate to contracted workers in @churchofengland schools.@petergmadams @churchpoverty https://t.co/37LEpgov0D
— Ealing Living Wage Alliance (@EalingLWA) February 9, 2023
Following the success of the 2021 ELWA/UNISON campaign, to force Labour-run Ealing Council to fulfil its Living Wage Foundation accreditation obligations, ELWA undertook an investigation into Church of England and Catholic schools across the borough.
They discovered that, despite the 2014 pledge made to UNISON that the Church of England and Catholic Schools nationally would accredit with the Living Wage Foundation and ensure contracted workers would receive the real Living Wage, only 50 schools nationally had accredited.
In Ealing, the Living Wage Foundation said that no church schools were accredited, although some had been forced to improve their pay to London Living Wage (LLW) as part of the ELWA Ealing Schools Catering Consortium campaign.
According to a EWLA statement: “Subsequent correspondence with the Church of England Education Office (the National Society) and London Diocese Board of Schools informed us that the decision to accredit laid solely with the schools concerned.”
They added: “In 2022 ELWA then campaigned to persuade Twyford Academies CofE Trust to improve the pay of its IFG contracted kitchen workers to LLW. In May of 2022 Twyford Academies Trust confirmed that the LLW would be implemented across its 4 secondary schools for cleaning and catering staff. Richard Lane, director of finance & pperations assured ELWA assured that when the Trust’s catering contract comes up for renewal in 2023 he would require the contractor to comply with LLW and that he was in the process of registering with the Living Wage Foundation. Richard Lane confirmed that no formal correspondence had been received from National Society, LDBS or General Synod regarding the 2014 pledge.”
ELWA campaigner Michael Milne told EALING.NEWS:”It is a disgrace that in the middle of a cost of living crisis Church of England and Catholic schools across Ealing continue to pay below London Living Wage rates to hardworking constituents. ELWA calls on all church schools to implement the 10 year old pledge, accredit with Living Wage Foundation and practise what they preach when it comes to Christian morality- ‘Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is your power to act-proverbs 3:27′”.
 joined and supported UNISON action outside General Synod, as the church discussed its position on the cost of living crisis. ELWA raised concerns that thousands of Church of England schools have failed to accredit with Living Wage Foundation which the church pledged to UNISON in 2014 that it would do.){kind=link}