Sheffield campaigners urge South Yorkshire mayor to fight for living wage and statutory sick pay during local lockdown

The organisation ‘Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise’ have created a petition, demanding that staff in the city are provided with a ‘real living wage’ including statutory sick pay in the event Sheffield is subjected to new local lockdown restrictions this afternoon.

With 97 signatures, the campaigning group encouraged Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis to support the movement and ‘push for living wage sick pay’ to keep workers and communities safe.

The city has been teetering on the edge of a local lockdown, as it came out as the area with the seventh highest number of Covid-19 cases last week according to Public Health England.

Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise said “this pandemic has shone a light on the people who really keep Sheffield going” and urged healthcare workers, carers, refuse collectors and fast-food workers to be rewarded for their hard work.

On the petition, the group wrote: “The Sheffield City Region is the ‘low pay capital’ of the UK and has consistently ranked highly on COVID infection-rate charts.

“Now on the brink of a local lockdown, the lives of low wage workers in the city are in turmoil.”

Boris Johnson is set to address MPs in the House of Commons at 3.30pm this afternoon (Monday, October 12) to outline the new three-tier traffic light lockdown system and reveal which areas are subject to new restrictions.

Campaigners continued: "The working class people struggling to get by.

“Working conditions in these industries are deteriorating quickly - adequate PPE is not available and social distancing is impossible.

“Fast food restaurants, shops and distribution warehouses are becoming epicentres for continuing the spread of the virus, resulting in multiple serious workplace outbreaks.

“If low wage workers have to self-isolate, most are forced to rely on Statutory Sick Pay, which is only £95.85 a week.

"Some won’t even receive that.

"Employers are risking the health of our communities by putting workers in the impossible position of choosing between health and paying the bills.”

Workers concerned about pay and working conditions should contact Sheffield Needs A Pay Rise on social media or by emailing [email protected]

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