Meeting of the Parliament 30 September 2015
I am always in favour of an evidence-based approach, but I have never yet met a politician whose political instincts were confined to listening to what other people had to say.
To allow local authorities to do their job, the work programme should be devolved. The powers could be used to help people get back to work, and local authorities could achieve that in ways that are informed by detailed knowledge of the local economy.
Ministers could start today by asking Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise to assess the impact of the oil jobs crisis council by council. That would allow councils to work with the enterprise agencies to address the loss of high-value jobs and to identify opportunities for diversification—for example, from offshore oil and gas to marine renewable energy.
Loss of high-value jobs is most critical in parts of the country where low-paid jobs are more prevalent. In the north-east, hundreds of jobs are set to go at Young’s in Fraserburgh, and many of those who will be affected by those job losses might struggle to find good-quality jobs in the local economy.
Across the country, the growth in part-time jobs, zero-hours contracts and low-paid jobs affects disabled people in particular, women more than men and young people more than over-25s. Recent migrants are also more likely to be exploited, underemployed and underpaid.
Cracking down on criminal employment practices is essential, but it is only part of what is required. There is also a need to tackle employment practices that are lawful but dishonest, whether we are talking about multinational corporations that are avoiding tax or businesses that are taking unfair advantage of zero-hours contracts.
There has to be support for positive employment practices. The next Scottish Government will have new opportunities to develop a social security system to help people into meaningful employment, but there is no need to wait for new powers to take forward new initiatives. Ministers can do more to use the Scottish Government’s purchasing power as leverage for promoting the living wage and to use existing procurement rules that the previous Scottish Executive put in place to set a higher bar across the public sector.
We need ministers to take action to promote positive employment policies, and that action can be taken now without waiting for the next raft of powers to be devolved from Westminster. We need urgent action to address the impact of the oil jobs crisis across the Scottish economy, before it is too late for the Government to make a difference.
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