The Joseph Centre for Dignified Work

The City of London is a key part of the UK economy, providing more than half a million jobs and generating billions of economic output each year.  It has one of the youngest and most skilled workforces in the country.  Yet the City’s success relies on tens of thousands of ‘hidden workers’: the cleaners, security guards, hospitality workers, couriers, construction workers and many others. Too many of these workers do not enjoy fair pay or dignified working conditions and a growing number live in poverty and hardship.

We are establishing a new institution here in the heart of the City: the Joseph Centre for Dignified Work will work to reweave relationships of trust, recognition and dialogue between the worker, business, and civic communities. Our vision is that through these relationships and dialogue we can together deliver dignified working conditions to all workers as well as supporting businesses to achieve new standards for social responsibility and ethical purpose. Our vision is a City that works for everyone, securing the common good for all.

The creation of this new institution is inspired by the work of the Guild Church for Workers at St Katharine Cree (SKC). This church has re-engaged the hidden workers who underpin the prosperity and success of the City. SKC is building community among such workers - of all faiths and none – and responding to what we have heard through hundreds of face-to-face conversations with workers in the City about their needs and hopes. We are playing our part to renew the social and civic fabric of the City of London.