Unions Urge Support For Manifesto

Trade unions are calling on general election candidates from all parties to support their manifesto for decent work, including a minimum wage increase, an end to zero-hours contracts and a commitment to restoring trade union freedom.

The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) says its 11-point plan for decent work and dignified lives will deliver respect, decency and equality in the workplace as well as providing the basis for a recovery we can all believe in, and in which no-one is left behind''.

It has called on parties and individual candidates to pledge their support on specific proposals contained in the plan.

These include an immediate increase of the minimum wage to £8 per hour, use of public sector procurement to mandate the payment of the living wage, and an increase in maternity and paternity pay.

The STUC also wants an end to zero-hours and short-hours contracts, introduce full employment protections for all workers and universal free childcare.

Its manifesto also calls for the restoration of collective bargaining rights and the creation of a Ministry of Labour, with the duty to encourage sectoral collective bargaining to return to industry-wide determination of pay and other working conditions''.

STUC general secretary Grahame Smith said: With two months to go before the general election, it is clear that Scotland will be a major battleground in determining the outcome. Scotland's 620,000 trade union members and their families and friends will have a real say in determining the future.

The STUC views with alarm the possibility of the return of a Tory Government committed to further austerity and attacks on living standards and quality of work. The Tories plan to further undermine employment protection and erode the fundamental rights of workers to organise and bargain in the workplace.

We welcome the commitments of both Labour and the SNP to support measures to protect workers from zero-hours contracts, to increase the minimum wage, pay and promote the living wage, and act definitively against such practices as blacklisting.

However, as our manifesto makes clear, economic inequality in Scotland cannot be effectively challenged without a wider commitment to allowing trade unions the freedom to organise and to bargain collectively.

He added: This manifesto therefore provides a challenge to all parties in Scotland to support a wide range of measures which would restore trade union freedom, and through restoring sectoral bargaining, remove the shackles which all too often prevent us from defending those who suffer most from low pay and insecure work.

We will be asking the prospective candidates of all Scotland's main political parties to pledge to support our manifesto and will collate and publish our the responses from all candidates at our Congress on April 20.''