Meeting of the Parliament 01 March 2016
I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate on an important report. Regardless of the previous speaker’s characterisation of it, the report was marked by the way in which committee members came together, listened to the testimony of people’s experience and tried to respond to that. It covers important issues and makes important recommendations. I urge those who will be in the Scottish Parliament after the next election to revisit this important report because we were all united in wanting not only to describe the scale of the problem but to influence the finding of solutions to the problems.
At the heart of the report there is a central truth: low pay, job insecurity, zero-hours contracts and lack of involvement in decision making in the workplace matter not just because they are bad for the health of individuals and their ability to plan for and support their families but because poor working practices are bad for the economy and its capacity to be strengthened and to create opportunity and a better life for all. Nothing in the report causes more despair than its recognition that there are people who work unbelievably hard every day doing their very best in very important jobs without significant reward or even a guarantee that they will be able to meet their families’ needs. That must surely be a spur to us all.
I will highlight a number of issues. The first is flexible working. That sounds like a nice term, but the report includes a description of one woman’s experience that is worth reflecting on. She has worked in the supermarket all her life and now has responsibility for the care of her mother. She needs to be available at around 8 o’clock or 9 o’clock at night to ensure that her mother is put to bed and is comfortable. However, her employer advised her that she had to be available from 6 o’clock in the morning until midnight even though she might be working only 15 or 16 hours in the week. The irony is that, unable to respond to that lack of flexibility, she could end up having to give up her work, which would mean that she would not only be less productive and unable to support her family but face the risk of sanction. That surely cannot be just. As Karen Whitefield from the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers said, it seems that flexibility is now too often all on the side of the workforce and not on the side of the employer. We need to reflect on that.
The lack of involvement of employees in the workplace has a direct consequence for health and safety, for employees’ protection in the workplace and for the work that they do. That is most obvious in the oil and gas industry. We heard evidence that people in that industry were reluctant to complain in case that put their job on the line at a time when jobs are at risk anyway. We must recognise the importance of participation and the critical role of trade unions in relation to wages and conditions and, as importantly, in giving a voice to the people in the workforce who can improve the quality of the work that is done if attention is paid to them.
It is not an accident that we linked pay and conditions in the report and acknowledged the issue of low pay. We recognise the potential of the use of the living wage, but we must also acknowledge that it is not sufficient to pay the living wage if the people who are on it become more and more overstretched, doing more and more work filling in for people who have lost their jobs. That is happening in the care sector more generally but, with cuts to local government, the living wage badge will not be sufficient to give people security and good-quality work if they have to do more in the time that they have been given.
It is important that the DWP does not direct people to employers with bad working practices and then sanction them for not taking those jobs.
I say to the Scottish Government that I understand the need for the business pledge to be voluntary at this stage but, if the pledge is to matter, it must ensure that businesses that want to be good employers and take the high road are not undercut by the ones that cynically choose the low road. The business pledge and Government and local government decisions on contracts are significant in rewarding people who aspire to provide the good-quality jobs that the report identifies. That is where Scottish Government action in particular is critical. The Government must recognise its power to reward employers who want to do the right thing.
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