Topshop Cleaners And The Living Wage

EDM number 1427 in 2015-16, proposed by Roger Godsiff on 27/04/2016.
Categorised under the topics of Companies, Incomes and poverty, Industrial relations, Pay and Service industries.

That this House notes with concern that contract cleaners employed at Topshop stores by the contractor Britannia Services Group are paid below the living wage, forcing hard-working staff into debt and poverty; believes that there is no excuse for profitable multi-national companies which provide huge payouts to shareholders refusing to pay decent wages; fully supports cleaners contracted to work at Topshop stores who are unionising, protesting and campaigning for the living wage; is extremely concerned by reports that these staff are being victimised and bullied for asking for a decent wage; further believes that it is utterly disgraceful for the Arcadia Group, which owns Topshop, or its contractors to punish staff for asking for decent wages; further notes that Philip Green, who runs Arcadia, is avoiding tax by registering the company in his wife's name in Monaco; calls for the Government urgently to close tax loopholes and reclaim the approximately £285 million of tax which Arcadia has avoided; condemns Philip Green's decision to hoard wealth overseas rather than pay his employees and pay his taxes; further calls on the Government to recognise that the new minimum wage of £7.20 is not a living wage, and to survive without being in poverty workers need £8.25 an hour or £9.40 in London; believes all work should pay enough to live on; and calls for a boycott of Topshop and any other companies which refuse to pay their workers a living wage and pay their fair share of tax.

This motion has been signed by a total of 11 MPs.