Thank you for your email received by us on 15 April 2017 asking for information about the London Living Wage in relation to our contracted services.
 
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require. You asked for:
 
• Any TfL contracted services that are not paying the living wage to their staff. This includes outsourcing work abroad to avoid paying it.
 
In relevant contracts, we impose contractual obligations on our contractors to pay no less than the London Living Wage to their employees.
 
Relevant contracts include the provision of goods, services and works in occupations, which are traditionally low paid and where staff work wholly or mainly on our premises or on property occupied by us or on sites which we are responsible for maintaining.
 
Examples of contracts where we don’t impose contractual obligations to pay the London Living Wage to their employees would include contracts with manufacturers in our supply chain outside London, or contracts for services with a cost base that is known to be high, where there is no risk that the work being undertaken for us would be undertaken by employees earning less than the London Living Wage.
 
I am particularly interested in:
 
1.TfLs IT help desk which I understand is now based in Poland.
 
The Service Desk contract is published here: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f593fd9b-7988-49b8-a9b9-d28eca8346f2?p=@NT08=UFQxUlRRPT0=NjJ ; under it, some services are provided from Poland and from Tenerife.
 
It contains the definition for London Living Wage Employees as “all employees of the Supplier and employees of any Subcontractor who are employed for substantially all of their time”:
 
(a) in the provision of the Services; and
(b) within the Greater London Area (as defined in the Greater London Authority Act 1999).
 
In accordance with section 21 of the FOI Act, we are not obliged to supply you with a copy of the requested information as it is already accessible to you elsewhere.
 
2.Companies on the Traffic Data Collection Framework; Intelligent Data Ltd and Tracsis. I understand they outsource to India for analysis
 
The Traffic Data collection framework has now expired, however any sub-contractors located in foreign countries would have been outside the scope of London Living Wage.
 
3. Cleaners in TfL offices
 
Our contract with Vinci Facilities for facilities management, which includes office cleaning, is published here http://content.tfl.gov.uk/vinci-facilities-contract-tfl-signed-copy.pdf
It includes obligations in Schedule 2C Special Conditions of Contract (TfL) clause 22 to ensure the cleaners (and any other employees) are paid at least the London Living Wage. Our facilities management contract with ABM includes a clause imposing the same obligations.
 
We have recently announced our intention to award five of six new contracts to manage TfL facilities. The sixth contract that relates to the cleaning of our facilities will be awarded in the summer. All these contracts include a commitment for all employees to be paid at least the London Living Wage.
 
If you do not have this information, please let me know:
• Is it a contractual requirement that your sub contractors pay the living wage?
• Does TfL has a policy on its sub contractors outsourcing abroad to use cheaper labour and thus avoid paying the living wage?
 
TfL requires its contractors to pay the London Living Wage in the circumstances set out at the beginning of this response.
 
We source goods and services that ensure best value for public expenditure. In some instances these activities are undertaken by third parties both within the UK and outside depending on capability and cost. Where third parties are outside of the UK, this is not done to avoid the Living Wage and there is no such policy
 
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
 
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
 
Yours sincerely
 
 
Jasmine Howard
FOI Case Officer
Information Governance
Transport For London