SNP idle on living wage

Sir,

I would like to respond to the letter from Archie Harper of 11 November regarding the Scottish Labour Party and the living wage.

The minimum wage and the living wage is something I have been passionate and proud of since I first entered Parliament in 1997 when the introduction of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) was a key manifesto commitment for the Labour Party throughout the general election campaign.

I remember the night we voted on NMW, being awake for 35 hours and voting throughout the night to ensure this important piece of legislation was passed by my Labour colleagues and I. The SNP however, opted to go home early and spent their evening in bed whilst we did the hard work to deliver this ground breaking legislation.

As we move towards a living wage I am proud once again of Labour’s work on promoting the living wage, and it was Labour-led Glasgow City Council that first lead the way in seeking to introduce a living wage for its employees and also the council’s contractors.

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SNP “idle” about Living Wage

15 November 2014

Now there are councils the length and breadth of Scotland that pay staff the living wage and a growing number of companies. However, there is still a long way to go.

Scottish Labour in the Scottish Parliament proposed extending the living wage to workers on public sector contracts which would have delivered a pay rise to thousands of low paid staff. Sadly, the SNP voted against this proposal with the Conservatives in order to stop this from happening.

We back the extension of the living wage to public sector contracts because it makes economic sense and is the right thing to do to help promote a socially just Scotland and as a first step towards ensuring the public sector will eventually pay staff a living wage.

As I said last week, even in the Western Isles there are over 1,000 people who are not paid a living wage and find themselves in working poverty. The Labour party and I are standing up for these low paid workers while the SNP stand idly by.

Scottish Labour will deliver for low paid workers by taking advantage of having a strong Scottish Parliament within a larger UK and have set out a plan to extend the living wage by seeking to :

Establish a Living Wage Unit to promote the living wage in the private sector.
Establish a National Living Wage Strategy to be laid before Holyrood
Extend the living wage to public contracts
Make work pay contracts which will see a £1,000 rebate to companies who pay the living wage
Increase the minimum wage to £8 by 2020
Ban the use of exploitative zero hours contracts

Scottish Labour is at its best when we are fighting for social and economic justice. We can show the people of Scotland what happens when a party truly stands up for the low paid and delivers workers a better deal rather than argue about the constitution.

David Stewart MSP

Highlands and Islands Regional MSP