Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 16 September 2020
As Keir Starmer made absolutely clear in his address to the Trades Union Congress, we fully support an end to firing and rehiring. The challenge for the Scottish Government is that there is no point in Scottish National Party members at Westminster saying that they are opposed to firing and rehiring when the Scottish Government happily hands over substantial sums of money—in relation to business rates, for example—through one door and companies hand out redundancy notices through the other door.
I have listened to people who support the ending of firing and rehiring. For example, GMB members were told by Swissport at Glasgow airport in June that their jobs were going. They told me that they warned the Scottish Government in March that that was likely to happen. Today, the Parliament can stand side by side with all those workers, including those in our own constituencies and regions. We can come together and say, “Enough is enough.” We can recognise the urgency of the crisis.
The Scottish Government can commit to working with the aviation sector, the trade unions and all stakeholders to agree a package of targeted support. That action should include making the case for an extension of the job retention scheme—or, rather, a new scheme. Not a day goes by when Labour does not make that particular case. We need a furlough scheme that is not used, as Unite the union has said, as a state-sponsored raid on terms and conditions and a subsidising of the cost of redundancy by abusing the job-retention scheme, reducing members’ payments and despicably pitting worker against worker through an effective fire-and-rehire proposal.
As I have said, that principle goes for any support that the Scottish Government provides. It needs to attach conditions that protect jobs and workers’ conditions. We have seen conditions being attached to support. For example, the Government tells us that the bus sector has a condition that says that routes must be protected. Why cannot we have targeted support for the aviation sector that protects jobs?
The clock is ticking for that support. Although there is much in the SNP’s amendment that we support, it is, like the Scottish Government’s response to the crisis so far, too half-hearted, and it lacks urgency. Back in July, in letters to unions and airports, the cabinet secretary committed to work with airports on a route recovery strategy. He claimed to be establishing a number of targeted group discussions to take forward initiatives in which the Scottish Government can provide such support. Three months later, we have heard nothing.
When Michael Matheson responds, will he give a personal commitment to meet aviation sector trade unions, which he has so far failed to do, to discuss what more can be done to support the sector? Will he tell the Parliament—[Interruption.]
What the cabinet secretary has said is not true. I am sure that he can answer that when he—[Interruption.] The trade unions have made it clear that the cabinet secretary has not met them to discuss a package of targeted support for that sector. He has failed to deliver the targeted support—