The British Social Attitudes survey indicates the majority of people think the head of a reasonably sized company should earn no more than six times the pay of the shop floor staff. The Chief Executive in Sheffield Council gets paid fourteen times what the lowest paid staff receive.

Years of peer reviewed academic research point to more equal societies giving their citizens better health outcomes, being more socially mobile, encouraging greater success at school and reducing teenage pregnancy, having better community life, more trust and less crime. There are different ways to reduce this gap, a key one being reducing the pay for top earners.

Councillor Rob Murphy comments:

“Reducing the gap between high and low paid has benefits when Council finances are being squeezed so much and we proposed to reduce the pay of senior Council staff in last year’s budget. It also makes sense when you look at the evidence. Once people get above a decent wage, more money doesn’t actually make them happier. And it makes others feel like they have to keep up or they’re failing in life.

We’re calling on the Council to make clear how much more the top paid executive gets than the lowest paid member of staff, both for itself and the major companies that run our services. In the long term we want to see those pay gaps reduce for the benefit of us all.”

NOTES :

1 – The motion council is as follows :

NOTICE OF MOTION GIVEN BY COUNCILLOR ROBERT MURPHY
That this Council:-

(a) notes the campaign “Act Local = Reduce the Gap” by the Equality Trust and the public concern over pay ratios as expressed in the proposals from all political parties to reduce excessive pay in the public and private sector;

(b) notes the British Social Attitudes survey 2010 indicated the majority of people think the head of a reasonably sized company should earn no more than six times the pay of a typical worker in the company;

(c) notes that years of peer reviewed research point to more equal societies having citizens who: have better health outcomes, are more socially mobile, have greater success at school and lower rates of teenage pregnancy, have better community life, more trust and are less likely to commit crime;

(d) believes that the Council can play a central role in tackling inequality through their own pay policies and also through their influence on private-sector contractors;

(e) therefore requests officers to:-

(i) publish the highest-to-lowest pay ratio for directly employed council staff;

(ii) hold discussions with private sector companies that have major council contracts with a view to publishing, where possible, their highest-to-lowest pay ratios; and

(iii) draft a policy to include these principles within procurement processes.

2 – The British Social Attitudes Survey 2011/12 has just been released and can be accessed via http://www.britsocat.com/Home

Councillor Jillian Creasy contributed to the meeting organised by Justice for All, the national campaign group for access for free legal advice, at an event held at The Circle on 20th January.

The Advice Review is being carried out by the Cabinet Office because of the way the massive cuts in legal aid fall far more heavily on charities and the voluntary sector – such as Sharrow CAB in Central Ward which Councillors Jillian Creasy and Rob Murphy represent.

Councillor Creasy told the Advice Review :

“As a City Councillor, I see how advice services such at Citizens’ Advice Bureaux and the Law Centre help with individual problems, but also contribute to the life of the city by training volunteers, supporting other voluntary organisations and using their expertise to tackle the causes of poverty and debt.”

Notes

The Green Party has two councillors in Sheffield – Rob Murphy and Jillian Creasy, who both represent Central Ward, which has levels of serious deprivation.

Sheffield Green Party opposed the cuts to legal aid proposed by the Government because of the need for everyone to have access to basic information and advice about their legal rights.

Under the Government’s proposals, the voluntary advice sector – Citizens Advice Bureaux, Law Centres and independent advice centres – are set to lose 77% of their legal aid funding.

The motion of Councillors Creasy and Murphy was agreed by Sheffield City Council on 7th September 2011, including the text: that this council: “commits to all possible steps to support the local advice sector, which has established itself as providing excellent service for the citizens of Sheffield; therefore resolves to support the Justice for All campaign for free legal advice, which aims to ensure everyone is treated fairly under the law, and directs the Chief Executive to sign up this Council to the campaign”

Jillian Creasy at Occupy Sheffield

Jillian Creasy spoke at the Rally for Occupy Sheffield, speaking out for Surestart, she said that “Women must fight the cuts!” The full text of her speech follows.

Rampant capitalism is ripping apart the fabric of society, destroying people and planet. Dave & Ed say they want “responsible capitalism”. I want “emasculated capitalism”. “Emasculate” means “castrate, effeminate” – that’s exactly what I mean!

The Coalition cuts, now supported by Labour, will affect women worst. I want to speak up for women – as paid & unpaid workers, as mothers, as elders.

• Paid workers
• - 2/3rd public sector workers are women – will be affected by the pay freeze.
• 50,000 of these (mostly women) earn less then £15k pa.
• Even these lowest paid will have to payer higher pension contributions.
• And in the private sector, ¾ women are not in a pension scheme at all.

• Unpaid workers
• 1 in 4 women in their 50s are caring for an elderly parent, saving the taxpayer and reducing their own earnings and pensions.
• Carers support services and advice services are being slashed: SCC is about to cut another 5% from the grants to voluntary groups; and if legal aid is cut, advice centres will be further harmed.

• Mothers
• The greatest unpaid job of all.
• Women no longer get Income Support if their children are less than 12 years old, and this will drop even further to 7 years old. They have to sign on for JSA (job seekers allowance).
• Surestart is under attack – less support for the most needy children and families.

• Sharrow Surestart
• 15% cuts last year, facing another 10% next year, have cut play and stay sessions, bilingual outreach workers.

• Elders
• Women live longer and have most to lose from cuts to adult social care.
• SCC will cut the adult social care budget by £15m, 2 old people’s homes are under threat, elderly and disabled people facing higher charges.
• Scandal of Southern Cross where care homes were used as pawn in money market.

• But women are fighting back
• The 30th November strike & rallies re public sector pensions & cuts – women were out in force.
• RCN (Royal College of Nursing) and RCGP (Royal College of GPs) (female chair, Clare Gerada) have called for Health and Social Care Bill to be withdrawn, spelling out that it is intended to privatise the NHS.

• Justice for All are fighting the cuts to legal aid and advice centres
• excellent conference in Sheffield yesterday (20th Jan)
•  (female) advice centre managers from across the north of England, lobbying the cabinet office and ministers.
• Sharrow Surestart is reaching out to local people to fight the cuts and fill the gaps.
• Disability Rights movement is growing in strength, locally disabled people are challenging the cuts to adult care services.
• Unions are collecting signatures to stop the closure of care homes.

So, take heart, and let’s emasculate capitalism!

The Star report on the recent debate in Parliament on barriers at Sheffield Station headlined the £14m that is allegedly lost through fare evasion, without questioning where this figure comes from. No data has ever been provided by EMT on the difference human barriers make to their fare collection. When Residents against Station Closure pressed repeatedly for this information they were eventually informed that the data was on a laptop that had been corrupted, so they could not share the data!

If an astonishing 18% of journeys are without tickets then EMT are being irresponsible. They should be employing more ticket inspectors to patrol the trains and platforms and collect the fares.

Even if the £14m is correct there is a far greater haemorrhaging of funds from the rail industry that should be spent on improving the service. Stagecoach recently paid out £340 million to its shareholders, £88m of which was shared between Sir Brian Souter and his sister Ann Gloag. It is time to stop these obscene payments to the mega rich and bring the railways back into public ownership.

Graham Wroe

Sheffield Green Party

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/aug/19/stagecoach-hands-shareholders-payout