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Brixton Ritzy staff in pay dispute for London Living Wage with Picturehouse Cinemas

plurker said:
Last time I went to Ritzy it was c.£12 a ticket.
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Last time I went it was £4.50 for the Human Rights Film Festival. The film was hard going,emotionally, perhaps they should've paid me instead.:D

I'll certainly support the strike , is it this saturday or next?
 
DJWrongspeed said:
I just can't believe this is accurate sorry.....
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Well, it doesn't especially matter, but why not? They've got a relatively small number of low paid staff, many of whom are part time. There's a very low labour content in what they sell and the running costs of a building that size in Brixton have got to be enormous (even before you get to the licensing fees for films).
 
Lo Siento. said:
Well, it doesn't especially matter, but why not? They've got a relatively small number of low paid staff, many of whom are part time. There's a very low labour content in what they sell and the running costs of a building that size in Brixton have got to be enormous (even before you get to the licensing fees for films).
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The licensing of the films is a massive expense. Got to pay those millionaire actors.

I'd like to see a calculation showing how much effect a 12p increase in the ticket price from £12 to £12.12 with the money all going to staff would have. A very significant one - staff are screwed over pennies.
 
The arguments about the job description of the Ritzy staff are irrelevant. So are the arguments about what proportion of the Ritzy turnover is down to staff costs. The point about the London living wage is that it should be paid to all London workers as a minimum wage.
 
The percentage of turnover that is staff costs is not irrelevant. It shows that arguments by management that they cannot afford to pay more are lies. And this goes way beyond London.

Sorry, distributor of blockbusters, we have to pay our staff decent wages, so you're going to have to temper your demands, and maybe you might look at the stupid money you pay your actors if that puts you in trouble.

This goes way beyond the UK even.
 
littlebabyjesus said:
The percentage of turnover that is staff costs is not irrelevant. It shows that arguments by management that they cannot afford to pay more are lies. And this goes way beyond London.

Sorry, distributor of blockbusters, we have to pay our staff decent wages, so you're going to have to temper your demands, and maybe you might look at the stupid money you pay your actors if that puts you in trouble.

This goes way beyond the UK even.
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Winot said:
The arguments about the job description of the Ritzy staff are irrelevant. So are the arguments about what proportion of the Ritzy turnover is down to staff costs. The point about the London living wage is that it should be paid to all London workers as a minimum wage.
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Can't disagree with either of those really. London Living Wage should be paid to all London workers and it really shouldn't matter how it affects the business. But, you mobilise every argument you've got...
 
littlebabyjesus said:
The percentage of turnover that is staff costs is not irrelevant. It shows that arguments by management that they cannot afford to pay more are lies. And this goes way beyond London.

Sorry, distributor of blockbusters, we have to pay our staff decent wages, so you're going to have to temper your demands, and maybe you might look at the stupid money you pay your actors if that puts you in trouble.

This goes way beyond the UK even.
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Fair enough. I meant that the living wage should be paid *even if* staff costs are a large proportion of total costs.
 
Smick said:
Are they looking for a few numbers in support? I'm always happy to mill round a picket line when I believe in the cause, but I don't want to cheapen their cause as I am not a stakeholder. It's easy for detractors to make rentamob accusations.
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I don't think they're going to have a picket line, even though I suggested to them that I thought it would be a grand thing.

I'm happy to do whatever I can to support their cause and will of course go along with whatever they think is appropriate.

This would be fun though :)

Miners%27_strike_picket.jpg
 
The business argument seems to have been made quite strongly in a number of papers (i.e.staff are happier, sick less often, more productive for the company paying higher salaries) but does anyone know of any research into the more general economics of the Living Wage becoming universal (in London)?
In Ritzy's case staff need a 21% wage increase to reach it but a lot of people will be earning even closer to minimum wage so their increase would be up to 40%. I don't know what proportion of people earn less than LLW as an hourly rate but if a significant proportion of the population of London were paid 20-40% more, to what extent could it create significant localised price inflation, e.g. in rents, services, etc..?
Does it have potential to create a vicious circle (i.e. people earn more but are no better off, so LLW has to go up)?
Are there certain jobs that would be driven out of London. Or have most relocatable low paid jobs already been moved? (I can't actually think of many.)
 
Rushy said:
The business argument seems to have been made quite strongly in a number of papers (i.e.staff are happier, sick less often, more productive for the company paying higher salaries) but does anyone know of any research into the more general economics of the Living Wage becoming universal (in London)?
In Ritzy's case staff need a 21% wage increase to reach it but a lot of people will be earning even closer to minimum wage so their increase would be up to 40%. I don't know what proportion of people earn less than LLW as an hourly rate but if a significant proportion of the population of London were paid 20-40% more, to what extent could it create significant localised price inflation, e.g. in rents, services, etc..?
Does it have potential to create a vicious circle (i.e. people earn more but are no better off, so LLW has to go up)?
Are there certain jobs that would be driven out of London. Or have most relocatable low paid jobs already been moved? (I can't actually think of many.)
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According to KPMG; research finds that Northern Ireland has the highest proportion of workers paid less than the living wage, at 26% (2012 report: 24%), followed by Wales at 25% (2012: 23%). The lowest proportions are in London at 17% (2012: 16%) and the south-east at 18% (2012: 16%). However, by numbers of people the north-west, London, and the south-east are the three most affected areas. Over five million people paid less that the living wage.

It's a Tory argument that higher wages create a vicious circle driving jobs away. The real vicious circle is caused by low pay and often no pay.
 
Why should more companies pay the Living Wage?

Businesses need to do what they can for the welfare of their staff. The minimum wage simply does not pay enough for families, in particular, to live on.
The problem of in-work poverty has been highlighted by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission recently. KPMG’s own research, just published (01/11/2013), has found that the number of people earning less than the Living Wage has grown by over 400,000 in the last year to some 5.24 million people.

KPMG has also found that the Living Wage simply makes good business sense. Since introducing the Living Wage for its staff in 2006, KPMG has found that the extra wage costs are more than met by lowered recruitment churn and absenteeism, greater loyalty, and higher morale leading to better performance.
http://www.kpmg.com/uk/en/issuesandinsights/articlespublications/pages/living-wage.aspx
 
Dexter Deadwood said:
Why should more companies pay the Living Wage?

Businesses need to do what they can for the welfare of their staff. The minimum wage simply does not pay enough for families, in particular, to live on.
The problem of in-work poverty has been highlighted by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission recently. KPMG’s own research, just published, has found that the number of people earning less than the Living Wage has grown by over 400,000 in the last year to some 5.24 million people.

KPMG has also found that the Living Wage simply makes good business sense. Since introducing the Living Wage for its staff in 2006, KPMG has found that the extra wage costs are more than met by lowered recruitment churn and absenteeism, greater loyalty, and higher morale leading to better performance.
http://www.kpmg.com/uk/en/issuesandinsights/articlespublications/pages/living-wage.aspx
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As I said, the business argument - why it can be good for a business and those people employed by a business - appears to have been made pretty strongly in all sorts of papers. It's the wider economics I'm interested in finding out more about. How will 20-40% increases in wages of 17% of the local population (although in reality it will be pockets of much higher - e.g. Lambeth perhaps? - and lower proportions - e.g. Westminster) affect local prices? And more importantly - how does it affect those who have no job? It would seem to me that it might possibly reduce employment opportunities in localised areas? Whilst possibly offering a double whammy of localised inflation.

Obviously the wider impact is not a consideration when just talking about the Ritzy staff as we are talking about such a small number of people.
 
editor said:
I don't think they're going to have a picket line, even though I suggested to them that I thought it would be a grand thing.

I'm happy to do whatever I can to support their cause and will of course go along with whatever they think is appropriate.

This would be fun though :)

Miners%27_strike_picket.jpg
Click to expand...
I'm at the NUJ conference in Eastbourne but Hendo said he might pop down to offer support.
 
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