Scotland, Labour and the Fight for Equal Pay
Scottish Labour have finally accepted their responsibilities over equal pay and gone a big step further than the SNP by insisting the Scottish Government has an important role to play in meeting the cost of historic equal pay claims.
If the SNP can find all this money for free 'handouts' to people who don't need the extra help, surely they agree the Scottish Government must be involved in bringing the scandal of low pay to an end pay and delivering equal pay in Scotland's councils?
In 2017 Scotland's public spending watchdog, the Accounts Commission, published a report stating that the scandal of equal pay scandal was down to "a decade long failure of leadership by local and central government".
The SNP, of course, have been the Scottish Government since 2007 and were in power throughout this decade long failure.
Read the full story via the link below to Tom Gordon's piece in The Herald.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19249081.scottish-labour-promote-equal-pay-law-next-parliament/
Scottish Labour to promote equal pay law in next parliament
By Tom Gordon - The Herald
Scottish Labour to promote equal pay law in next parliament
SCOTTISH Labour has said it will bring forward equal pay legislation in the next parliament to right historic wrongs and prevent a repeat of the problem.
The party said it would follow the lead of Labour MSP Monica Lennon in the last parliament and introduce the proposal from opposition as a member’s Bill.
Ms Lennon’s groundbreaking Bill to end period poverty attracted such wide support it was eventually backed by the SNP Government and went on to become law.
Scottish Labour today launched a Women’s Manifesto it said would put women at the heart of Scotland’s recovery from the Covid pandemic.
The Close the Gap organisations has said empowering women’s under-utilised skills and talents could unlock an estimated £17bn of growth in Scotland’s economy.
The manifesto included a plan for an Equal Pay Act which would make central government funds available to help councils and other public bodies meet historic equal pay claims, many of them generated on Labour's watch.
It would also force all public sector bodies and organisations with more than 250 employees who benefit from public sector procurement to publish regular equal pay reviews.
Scottish Labour deputy Jackie Baillie said prioritising an equal pay act would “end the scandal of low pay, it will value women’s work equally to men, it will actually lift families out of poverty, and it’s good for the local economy, too.
“So that’s something we would bring forward in the next parliament.”
Scotland’s councils have faced equal pay claims running into hundreds of millions of pounds after decades of paying men more than women in equivalent posts, often because male-dominated trade unions secured pay boosts and bonuses for male workers.
Asked if Labour was trying to put right pay scandals which arose in previously Labour-run councils, such as Glasgow, Scottish leader Anas Sarwar said: “It is undoubtedly the case that women across Scotland were let down around equal pay... there were issues that we didn’t get right.
“In hindsight it’s clear that justice was not done, and we do have to right those wrongs.
“That’s not just in Glasgow, that’s across the whole of Scotland.”
The party has also pledged a £500 “Scottish skills benefit” for anyone who is unemployed or on furlough to help them retrain, with £750 additional income support for people out of work.
Further policies include targeted training to support women into leadership positions and strengthened childcare support, along with the creation of a new enterprise unit to assist the growing number of women who are launching new start-up businesses.
Labour also proposed a catch-up initiative for breast and cervical cancer screening services after 43,000 breast and 180,000 cervical tests were delayed because of Covid.
It said Rapid Diagnostic Centres in every health board would give patients with possible cancer could get a diagnosis within two weeks, instead of waiting months.
The party also called for the resintatment of women-only wards in hospitals and buffer zones around abortion clinics to protect women’s privacy from protestors.
Mr Sarwar said: “The reason we deliberately and proactively took the choice of publishing a women’s manifesto is a recognition of the deep inequalities faced by women, not just during this pandemic but actually pre-pandemic, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“We know that pre-Covid there were huge structural inequalities faced by women that were structural inequalities around access to the labour market, structural inequalities around the workplace more generally, structural inequalities around community and safety, structural inequalities around education, structural inequalities around pay and around almost every sector of our society.”
Scottish Labour to promote equal pay law in next parliament
SCOTTISH Labour has said it will bring forward equal pay legislation in the next parliament to right historic wrongs and prevent a repeat of the problem.
The party said it would follow the lead of Labour MSP Monica Lennon in the last parliament and introduce the proposal from opposition as a member’s Bill.
Ms Lennon’s groundbreaking Bill to end period poverty attracted such wide support it was eventually backed by the SNP Government and went on to become law.
Scottish Labour today launched a Women’s Manifesto it said would put women at the heart of Scotland’s recovery from the Covid pandemic.
The Close the Gap organisations has said empowering women’s under-utilised skills and talents could unlock an estimated £17bn of growth in Scotland’s economy.
The manifesto included a plan for an Equal Pay Act which would make central government funds available to help councils and other public bodies meet historic equal pay claims, many of them generated on Labour's watch.
It would also force all public sector bodies and organisations with more than 250 employees who benefit from public sector procurement to publish regular equal pay reviews.
Scottish Labour deputy Jackie Baillie said prioritising an equal pay act would “end the scandal of low pay, it will value women’s work equally to men, it will actually lift families out of poverty, and it’s good for the local economy, too.
“So that’s something we would bring forward in the next parliament.”
Scotland’s councils have faced equal pay claims running into hundreds of millions of pounds after decades of paying men more than women in equivalent posts, often because male-dominated trade unions secured pay boosts and bonuses for male workers.
Asked if Labour was trying to put right pay scandals which arose in previously Labour-run councils, such as Glasgow, Scottish leader Anas Sarwar said: “It is undoubtedly the case that women across Scotland were let down around equal pay... there were issues that we didn’t get right.
“In hindsight it’s clear that justice was not done, and we do have to right those wrongs.
“That’s not just in Glasgow, that’s across the whole of Scotland.”
The party has also pledged a £500 “Scottish skills benefit” for anyone who is unemployed or on furlough to help them retrain, with £750 additional income support for people out of work.
Further policies include targeted training to support women into leadership positions and strengthened childcare support, along with the creation of a new enterprise unit to assist the growing number of women who are launching new start-up businesses.
Labour also proposed a catch-up initiative for breast and cervical cancer screening services after 43,000 breast and 180,000 cervical tests were delayed because of Covid.
It said Rapid Diagnostic Centres in every health board would give patients with possible cancer could get a diagnosis within two weeks, instead of waiting months.
The party also called for the resintatment of women-only wards in hospitals and buffer zones around abortion clinics to protect women’s privacy from protestors.
Mr Sarwar said: “The reason we deliberately and proactively took the choice of publishing a women’s manifesto is a recognition of the deep inequalities faced by women, not just during this pandemic but actually pre-pandemic, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“We know that pre-Covid there were huge structural inequalities faced by women that were structural inequalities around access to the labour market, structural inequalities around the workplace more generally, structural inequalities around community and safety, structural inequalities around education, structural inequalities around pay and around almost every sector of our society.”
