St Mary’s Accredited as a London Living Wage Employer

St Mary’s University College, Twickenham has been accredited as a Living Wage Employer, meaning it will ensure that all staff are paid, as a minimum, above the minimum wage in line with the cost of living in London. From 1^st September, St Mary’s will pay its employees, as a minimum, the London Living Wage. It is an hourly rate, above the national minimum wage, set independently and updated annually, based on the cost of living in London. The Living Wage campaign has been running for 10 years and, to date, has lifted over 45,000 people out of poverty in the UK. St Mary’s Chair of Governors Bishop Richard Moth said, “Catholic social teaching has long insisted on the rights of fair pay for employees. At St Mary's, conscious that our people are our most important asset, we pay the London Living Wage. We consider it is right to do this for the welfare of our staff and the success of our University College." St Mary’s Vice-Principal David Leen said, “In practice the number of staff affected by this change is relatively small but nevertheless the impact for these staff is quite significant.  Working with the Campus Unions the proposal to adopt the Living Wage was a principle  that we wanted to commit to and to seek the approval of the Board of Governors, which was given wholeheartedly.” St Mary’s has also successfully renewed its Pension Quality Mark (PQM) accreditation for its Defined Contribution Scheme introduced for professional and support staff in 2011. The PQM is a quality standard recognised by the HR and pensions industry, and the Government. It is the only benchmark to distinguish a good quality, defined contribution pension and measures its effectiveness in terms of contributions, governance and communications. The renewal further demonstrates the University College’s commitment to providing employees with excellent benefits and helping them to plan for the future.