The Metropolis

David Cohen of the Standard nails UCL president over poverty wages paid to cleaners

Darren Atwater | Friday 24 September, 2010 14:38

●

University College London, by William Wilkins

The Evening Standard has never really been considered the People’s friend but man, did David Cohen gets a great story on the front page.

University College London is the only Bloomsbury university that does not pay its cleaners the London living wage (£7.85) instead paying the minimum wage of £5.80.

So when Cohen confronted president Malcolm Grant, who at £404,000 is the second-highest paid university head in the nation, including Oxford and Cambridge, about this, Grant had this to say: “I am advised that paying contract cleaners the living wage would cost UCL £500,000 to £1 million a year. That’s a big slug. And what I haven’t got is a spare million pounds, okay?”

UCL posted £12 million in surplus last year on a budget of £713 million.

It’s a great read. UCL chief: Paying living wage would cost £1m a year … and I don’t have it [Evening Standard]

Filed in:

Snipe Highlights

Some popular articles from past years

  1. London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
  2. An interview with Desiree Akhavan
  3. A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
  4. Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
  5. The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
  6. Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
  7. Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
  8. Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
  9. Diary of the shy Londoner
  10. The five best places in London to have an epiphany