GWUI – FSU has written (HERE) to leading employers in the sector this week to request they pay the Living Wage to all staff, agency workers and contractors.

Readers will know that we have been campaigning for the Living Wage of €12.90 per hour to be the wage floor for the games sector here in Ireland. We have engaged with the Government and the Low Pay Commission to link the Living Wage to the proposed Digital Games Tax Credit Statement of Quality Employment (HERE) and we will continue this work.

Our research in the sector highlights that between 15-20% of those working in the sector are earning less than the Living Wage. These workers are most likely to work in QA, locations and admin/customer support.

The Living Wage is a wage which makes possible a minimum acceptable standard of living. The Living Wage is an evidence-based rate of pay which is grounded in social consensus and is derived from Consensual Budget Standards research which establishes the cost of a Minimum Essential Standard of Living in Ireland today.

The UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights, 1948 Article 25, outlines this basic right as:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself [herself] and of his [her] family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his [her] control.

Games is a highly profitable industry. The Living Wage should be a wage floor for the sector. No worker should be left behind.

Our activists are meeting this Saturday in Dublin to continue our organising and unionising efforts here across the sector. If you are not a member of the union and want to see better working conditions in the sector for all then join us here https://www.fsunion.org/join/