St Helens Chamber explains why it’s backing Mayor Steve Rotheram’s Charter.

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St Helens Chamber has joined employers across the Liverpool City Region in backing Mayor Steve Rotheram’s Fair Employment Charter.

The campaign against poverty pay and zero hours contracts aims to protect workers being hit by the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

More than 50 organisations have been awarded Aspiring status of the charter, which encourages businesses to pay staff a Real Living Wage, clamp down on the use of zero hours contracts, provide mental health support, encourage flexible working and engage with trade unions.

A further 85 companies are in talks to sign the charter.

Currently, more than a quarter of the region’s workforce earn less than a Real Living Wage, which is £10.90 an hour for everyone living outside of London, with an estimated 19,000 workers on zero hours contracts.

St Helens Chamber, a social enterprise with more than 100 staff, is among the first organisations to sign up.

Chief Executive Tracy Mawson said:

“When we saw the Fair Employment Charter being advertised we thought ‘actually that fits really well with our mission’.

“It’s very aligned to what we do around creating opportunity and success in our community.

“It’s something that really allows us to put a badge on all the work we are doing to help businesses be really good employers, to help ourselves be a good organisation, treating our staff fairly but also being really attractive to come and work here.”

Michelle Wright, HR Manager, added:

“For me, I think being a good employer is always wanting to continually develop and always do better.

“The charter gave us that opportunity to do that benchmarking exercise and gave me that information that I can focus on in the future on how we can be even better.”