‘It is essential that lifeline services and critical national infrastructure are maintained‘ – FM NICOLA STURGEON
Changes are being made to self-isolation rules for close contacts of COVID cases to allow essential staff in critical roles to return to work to maintain lifeline services and critical national infrastructure.
It will be possible to apply to exempt those who work in critical roles where staff shortages are in danger of putting essential services, such as health and social care, transport and the provision of food supplies at risk.
Exemption will only be granted in respect of members of staff who voluntarily agree not to self isolate, and the employers’ duty of care to all their employees must be respected.
Strict conditions will apply – staff must be double-vaccinated and in receipt of their second dose at least two weeks previously. They will also require to have a negative PCR test and to agree to undertake daily lateral flow tests.
Applications may be made via the Scottish Government website.
Exemptions will be made on a temporary basis and last only for as long as there is an immediate risk to business or service continuity.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “It is essential that lifeline services and critical national infrastructure are maintained and we are implementing these changes now – ahead of possible changes to self-isolation rules for close contacts that may apply more generally in future – to ensure staff shortages do not put key services at risk.
“We have seen significant staff shortages in a small number of organisations in recent days and we have worked with them to protect services. Applications for exemptions are being considered from today and we will consider applications as they come in.
“Clinical evidence tells us we can safely and effectively release some critical staff from self-isolation, with appropriate safeguards. However, this is a very limited change at this stage, to be applied on a case by case basis and only where absolutely necessary.
“We will not allow key services to be threatened by staff shortages but equally we must continue to protect public health.”
GMB Scotland: THINK AGAIN!
Responding to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s announcement , GMB Scotland Secretary Louise Gilmour said: “The decision taken by the Scottish Government to introduce exemptions for critical workers from self-isolation guidance has been driven by resource, not by what’s safe for the workers or their families.
“It’s not frontline workers following COVID precautions that threatens to put key services at risk, but the cuts, underfunding and understaffing of these services that means we don’t have the capacity we need to respond in times of crisis.
“Whether it’s in the NHS, our social care sector or in our supermarkets, the story is the same: it’s low paid, exhausted and predominantly women workers who have to make sacrifices as a result of the failure of those at the top to plan and invest.
“GMB is urging the Scottish Government to rethink their decision to gamble with the lives of our key workers, before it’s too late.”
Workers at the closure threatened McVitie’s site in Tollcross will take the fight for the future of their factory to Holyrood today, with a socially distanced demonstration outside the Scottish Parliament ahead of First Minister’s Questions.
The workforce is calling on politicians to stand with them and the community, to demand that David Murray, Managing Director of pladis, participates in meaningful consultation over alternative proposals to the closure of the factory and the loss of 470 local jobs.
A petition to save the jobs has so far received more than 72,000 signatures.
GMB Scotland Organiser David Hume said:“Workers at the McVitie’s site in Tollcross are fighting for their factory and their future, and every day the collective voice of the workforce and the local community grows louder.
“GMB committed to exploring every avenue to save these jobs and bring investment into this business but, if we’re to pursue alternative proposals to secure a future for these workers, we need the decision makers at pladis to come to the table.
“David Murray can’t be allowed to hide out in London while condemning Glasgow to a new generation of manufacturing decline. We’re calling on politicians to stand with the workers and the local community.
“It’s their factory and their future, and they want to fight for it.”
The prospect of strike action across Hanover Housing Association services has moved closer after GMB Scotland served the social housing provider with statutory notice for an industrial action ballot against an “insulting” 1 per cent pay offer for frontline workers.
After months of fruitless talks, union members have roundly rejected the real terms pay cut offer for staff like care support workers, cleaners, and domestic assistants, compared to a 4.5 per cent increase package for key management personnel in Hanover in 2020.
In a previous consultative ballot, 81 per cent of GMB members voted against the pay offer and 79 per cent in favour of moving to industrial action against the offer. The full industrial action ballot will run from Monday 28 June to Monday 12 July.
Hanover provide and manage a wide range of housing and services across Scotland, mainly for older people to help maintain their independence within the community.
GMB Scotland Organiser Ude Joe-Adigwe said:“The prospect of a real terms pay cut for many key workers earning little more than the living wage is insulting and made worse by the pay disparity between staff on the ground and management in Hanover.
“And it’s another case in point about the scale of the challenge for the fair work agenda – the backbone of Scotland’s frontline response to COVID-19 has largely been delivered on the backs of workers’ earning just over or under £10 an hour and Hanover is no different.
“This dispute goes to the very heart of the debate over proper value for key workers and the services they deliver, and employers like Hanover need to become part of the solution instead of a persistent low pay problem.
“If we want to build a recovery then it’s got to be better than this and Hanover need to listen to the workers’ voice if they want to avoid the real possibility of industrial action later this summer.”
Trade unions GMB Scotland and Unite Scotland, who jointly represent the vast majority of McVitie’s workers based at Tollcross, have reacted furiously to the company formally issuing redundancy notices yesterday.
The McVitie’s biscuit factory, which manufactures a range of notable products including Hobnobs and Rich Tea Biscuits, has through its parent owners Pladis also ‘disgracefully’ refused to engage with the newly established Action Group set up to prevent the factory’s closure.
The group is chaired by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Economy, Kate Forbes MSP, and involves the trade unions, Glasgow City Council, Scottish Enterprise, Clyde Gateway and Skills Development Scotland.
Following two meetings of the Action Group, Kate Forbes, wrote to McVitie’s requesting direct engagement with the parent company, Pladis, ahead of the next scheduled meeting on 23 June. The meeting is set to discuss a series of proposals which could maintain a presence of McVitie’s in the local area.
However, Unite Scotland and GMB Scotland can confirm that the company has formally issued redundancy notices to its workforce and refused to engage with the Action Group.
In 2014, the Turkish owned Pladis acquired the McVitie’s business after its takeover of United Biscuits, which made it the third largest biscuit manufacturer in the world. In that same year, United Biscuits also cut its then 680-strong workforce at Tollcross by almost a quarter.
The Tollcross factory, which first opened in 1925 as part of the Macfarlane and Lang’s Victoria Biscuit Works, is a major employer in an area with higher levels of social deprivation and unemployment. The McVitie’s presence in Scotland goes back to the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie & Price Ltd, which was established in 1830 in Edinburgh.
GMB Scotland Organiser David Hume said: “It’s an act of extreme bad faith on the part of the Pladis Managing Director David Murray, and a gross insult to hundreds of workers and their families who are fighting for their livelihoods and community.
“The rules of the game have now been changed by Pladis – the clock is now officially ticking on nearly 470 jobs and generations of food manufacturing that has endured austerity and prosperity, war and pandemic.”
“David Murray needs to be hauled by the Cabinet Secretary before the members of the Action Group because this is a profitable business with an innovative workforce that can and should have a future in the East End of Glasgow.”
Pat McIlvogue, Unite industrial officer, said:“It’s an absolute disgrace and slap in the face to the workforce that not only has McVitie’s formally issued redundancy notices but they are also refusing to engage with the Action Group established by the Scottish Government.
“Everyone except the company is working together in order to bring forward options, which could save hundreds of jobs in the local area. Unite is again calling on Pladis to directly engage with the trade unions, the workforce and the Scottish Government to look at credible alternatives to closure.
“Pladis have a duty of care to hundreds of workers to jointly discuss with us what could be done to save jobs instead of this belligerent and arrogant approach which they have adopted.”
GMB Scotland is pressing for proper employment status for more than 2,800 HM Coastguard rescue workers based at 310 rescue stations around the UK. About 900 of these workers are based in 116 rescue stations around the coast of mainland Scotland and the Islands.
The duties of HM Coastguard rescue workers include help rescue people trapped on the coast, for example on cliffs, stuck in mud or in the water, search for missing people, report and deal with pollution and other hazards and help emergency services and local authorities during emergencies, for example flooding.
These HM Coastguard rescue workers can be called out at any time of the day or night so they work irregular hours. They may have to work in hazardous situations for long hours and may have to carry out physically demanding tasks.
HM Coastguard rescue worker can have other employment. Required skills include: first aid, water rescue, map work, search techniques, communications and skills needed in for local area, for example rope rescue, mud rescue etc.
GMB Scotland is demanding that their status as workers is properly recognised and the work they do is properly valued and recognised.
Like for other recent high profile workers in irregular employment across the UK the union is prepared to litigate to obtain justice for these brave men and women.
Numbers of HM Coastguard rescue workers on irregular hours by Areas across the UK
Area 1 Scotland & Orkney Islands
137
Area 2 North Scotland
126
Area 3 East Scotland
97
Area 4 Inner Clyde to River Tay and East Scottish Border
134
Area 5 North East England
122
Area 6 East of England (Yorkshire, Humberside & Lincolnshire)
134
Area 7 East Anglia
155
Area 8 South East England
152
Area 9 : Southern England including Isle of Wight
202
Area 10 : South West England
175
Area 11 : Cornwall including Isles of Scilly
162
Area 12 : North Devon including Severn Estuary
176
Area 13 : South East Wales to Mid-Wales
203
Area 14 : North West Wales
162
Area 15 : Great Orme to West Scottish Border including the Lakes
152
Area 16 : Solway to Firth of Clyde including Northern Ireland
190
Area 17 : Kintyre to Mull, Isle of Arran and Inner Hebrides
159
Area 18 : Loch Linnhe to Outer Hebrides including Skye & the Small Isles
160
Gary Smith, GMB Scotland Secretary, said:“These 2,800 brave men and women who work in all weathers to rescue people and save lives are denied even the most basic rights of respect and recognition by their employer HM Coastguard.
“Staff with over 30 years experience are being axed without the basic right of being represented by their Union. The HM Coastguard rescue workers risk their lives to help and save others but are treated worse than any other Government worker. Urgent action needs to be taken to show respect for these unsung heroes.
“The union is prepared to litigate for these workers, so they can be properly recognised as part of the HM Coastguard rescue workforce and to ensure their basic employment rights are respected.”
GMB members across Scottish Local Government have overwhelmingly rejected the Scottish Government’s £800 increase for staff earning under £25,000 a year, sending a clear message to politicians and employers: “We’re worth more.”
Following the close of the union’s consultative ballot, 93 per cent of members voted to reject the offer tabled by the Finance Secretary Kate Forbes in the recent Scottish Budget, increasing the prospect of significant industrial action across local services this summer.
GMB, which represents 20,000 local government workers, pre-dominantly in services like home care, refuse, school support, and roads and maintenance, will now write to the First Minister and COSLA leaders to call for fresh negotiations and a significantly improved offer.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser for Public Services Drew Duffy said: “This is a clear demonstration from key workers across Scottish local government that Kate Forbes’ valuation of their efforts isn’t anywhere near good enough.
“It’s been a wretched year and a desperate decade for council workers, especially the lowest paid and the services they deliver. Home carers, refuse workers, and school support staff have got on with the job for all of us despite being failed on PPE, testing and safe working guidelines. Furthermore, they did this after years of political austerity, which cut their pay in real-terms and gutted their services.
“After the applause and all the political platitudes, to recognise their dedication and sacrifice with an increase that won’t amount to much more than £10 a week for many staff is derisory, and the message to Ministers, politicians on the election trail, and councils is clear: “We’re worth more.””
Ahead of the start of the 124th STUC Annual Conference today, GMB Scotland members from care, nursing, refuse, ambulance, and school support services, will tell Ministers, “We’re worth more!” as they campaign for a rejection of the NHS and COSLA pay offers for 2021.
GMB workplace representatives in NHS Scotland and COSLA are strongly urging members to reject the respective 4 per cent and £800 increases for the lowest paid workers, arguing the Scottish Government can and should go further after the last twelve months.
The union’s consultative ballot in COSLA will run until Thursday 22 April, and until Wednesday 5 May in NHS Scotland.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Drew Duffy said:“We were told at the start of the pandemic that Scotland was prepared for COVID-19, but nothing could have been further from the truth.
“Health and social care staff tackled the first wave of COVID-19 without proper PPE, home carers were left without workplace testing until January, and school support staff were an afterthought in the education recovery plan.
“From PPE, testing, sick pay support and socially distanced working arrangements, everything that’s been put in place to protect the workers on which we all depend had to be fought for by the workers’ themselves.
“And after a wretched year and desperate decade, where their modest incomes have been cut by thousands of pounds, our members are prepared to fight again for their proper value, against pay offers that don’t amount to much more than a £10 a week increase for many.
“They’ve heard the applause and they’ve read all the political platitudes, but now they are telling the Scottish Government to listen, and the message is clear: “We’re worth more.”
The continuing safety concerns due to COVID-19 means that the 2021 annual Congress will be held as a digital event.
Delegates from over 50 affiliated unions and trades union councils, as well as the STUC equalities committees, will meet over three days to debate and agree new policies.
We will also hear from sisters and brothers from other Trade Union Centres and from politicians.
The STUC General Council will deliver its report of the past 6 months work.
The digital format of Congress limits some of the things we can do but we still have a busy fringe event as well as expo sessions from our sponsors and supportive organisations.
You can watch the whole of Congress live on Facebook or YouTube!
Over a thousand British Gas workers across Scotland will walk out again tomorrow (Friday 19 March) for strike days thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven and thirty-eight, as the fight continues against their CEO Chris O’Shea’s shameful ‘fire and rehire’ imposition.
Engineers will walk out from 00.01 hours on Friday 19 March until 21.59 hours on Monday 22 March, and again on Friday 26 March to Monday 29 March, taking the total number of strike days in the dispute to forty-two.
Socially distanced picket lines will be in operation tomorrow morning at British Gas facilities in Edinburgh and Uddingston.
The latest wave of strikes was confirmed after workers across the UK voted by a resounding majority of four-to-one against proposals tabled through ACAS over the future of their terms and conditions, with Centrica refusing to lift the ‘fire and rehire’ imposition.
British Gas are set to issue dismissal notices on Monday 29 March to staff who refuse to accept the ‘fire and rehire’ imposition.
After thirty-four days of previous strike action, GMB understands that more than 250,000 homes across the UK are in a backlog for repairs and 350,000 planned annual service visits have been axed.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Hazel Nolan said:“British Gas is set to sack key workers if they do not accept Chris O’Shea’s ‘fire and rehire’ imposition – it’s a shameful way for any employer to behave let alone a great British industrial institution.
“Left unchallenged it also sets a dangerous precedent, where even the biggest employers can exploit a public health crisis to attack workers’ rights, and their terms and conditions of employment. That’s not modernisation, it’s Dickensian.
“But the message from our determined and dignified members is loud and clear: Stop the fire and rehire in British Gas, and let’s return to proper negotiations over the future of this business and its workers.”
GMB Scotland is urging all MSPs to support its campaign for a £15 an hour minimum wage for care workers.
In a letter to political party leaders ahead of a Scottish Parliamentary debate on the Independent Review of Adult Social Care this afternoon (Tuesday 16 February), the union calls on MSPs to grasp “a once in a generation opportunity to transform social care” by underpinning reforms with “proper value for the workers who will deliver it.”
The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport Jeane Freeman MSP will lead the debate for the Scottish Government and recommend the incoming Scottish parliament should implement the findings of the Independent Review “as quickly as practicable”, with opposition MSPs lining-up to back GMB’s pay increase plan for the sector.
The union’s ‘Fight for Fifteen’ campaign was launched following the publication of its sector report, ‘Show You Care: Voices from the frontline of Scotland’s broken social care sector’, which highlighted the significant challenges facing care workers before and during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
GMB Scotland’s Women’s Campaign Unit Organiser Rhea Wolfson said:“The recommendations of the independent review are a once in a generation opportunity to transform social care, but only if they are underpinned by proper value for the workers who will deliver them.
“The report is clear that every £1 spent on social care generates £2 for the wider economy, so if government and industry invest properly in this sector and its people, the effects could be transformative not just for workers and service users, but for society too.
“COVID-19 has exposed how poorly our care workers have been valued, a workforce of mainly low-paid and often exploited women who found themselves on the frontline of a crisis without proper safety or support.
“We owe them a huge debt and if we really want to put care on an equal footing with the NHS as the Cabinet Secretary suggests, then we have to back that up with the investment to match.
“Now is the time to be bold and today Holyrood can rise to the challenge. That’s why we are urging MSPs to stand with our members in care and support their campaign to fight for fifteen.”
Unions welcome announcement but slam Government inaction
Leading strategic infrastructure projects and physical asset lifecycle management company InfraStrata plc, is delighted to announce it has acquired the assets of the Scottish-based offshore energy fabrication company, Burntisland Fabrication (BiFab) Limited.The sites will trade under the Harland & Wolff name.
This highly strategic acquisition of assets and leases spans across two sites in prime Scottish locations with particular regard to renewable, oil & gas and defence projects: Methil on the east coast of Scotland and Arnish on the west coast of Scotland. The BurntIsland site will not form part of the transaction.
Both sites will trade under the Harland & Wolff brand and will represent the final fabrication piece of its UK footprint, positioning the company to fully deliver on its existing strategy quicker than it would have done with only its two existing sites: Harland & Wolff (Belfast) and Harland & Wolff (Appledore).
Methil, the larger of the two sites will be heavily focussed on fabrication for the oil and gas, commercial and renewables markets, whilst Arnish lends itself to multiple opportunities across all Harland & Wolff’s five markets: defence, oil & gas, renewables, commercial and cruise and ferry.
Through this strategic ambition across various geographical locations of the United Kingdom, InfraStrata emphasises its local and cross government support; aligned even closer to the UK Government’s “levelling-up” agenda and the “Green Industrial Revolution”.
The two Scottish sites will work symbiotically alongside Harland & Wolff (Belfast) and Harland & Wolff (Appledore).
John Wood, CEO of InfraStrata,commented: “With this acquisition, we now have a footprint in Scotland, which is the hotbed for major wind farm projects as well as for shipbuilding programmes. We have now positioned ourselves strategically across the UK with four sites capable of servicing our five core markets.
“This acquisition gives us the flexibility to optimise our operations across the Group and offer our clients the ability to fabricate faster and de-risk their exposure by offering multiple sites.
“As we move into larger contracts, it is crucial that we demonstrate the capacity to bid for and deliver on these projects. The acquisition of Bifab’s assets delivers that capability to us and will open up a larger demographic of tender opportunities.
“Finally, I wish to warmly welcome the personnel whom we have taken on at Methil and Arnish and I am confident that we will turn these facilities into highly successful businesses that generate jobs and investment into their local economies in due course.”
Harland & Wolff is a wholly-owned subsidiary of InfraStrata plc (AIM: INFA), a London Stock Exchange-listed firm focused on strategic infrastructure projects and physical asset life-cycle management.
Harland and Wolff (Belfast) is one of Europe’s largest heavy engineering facilities, with deep water access, deep water quayside berths and vast fabrication halls, with the addition of Harland & Wolff (Appledore) the company will be able to capitalise on opportunities at both ends of the market where it has strategic and unique assets that will be much in demand.
In addition to Harland & Wolff, it owns the Islandmagee gas storage project, which is expected to provide 25% of the UK’s natural gas storage capacity and to benefit the Northern Irish economy as a whole when completed. It is anticipated that the gas storage project will bring significant fabrication and construction work to the shipyard during its construction phase.
GMB Scotland and Unite Scotland have welcomed the announcement that two of the three BiFab fabrication yards have been bought out of administration by InfraStrata.
BiFab, which had three fabrication yards in Fife and the Isle of Lewis, went into administration in December last year following the Scottish Government withdrawing previous financial guarantees to support the manufacture of eight turbine jackets for the Neart na Gaoithe (NnG) offshore wind project at the yards.
InfraStrata as part of a £850,000 deal has bought the sites at Methil in Fife and Arnish on Lewis. It is understood that InfraStrata, which owns the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, will bring the Scottish sites under the Harland and Wolff name as it attempts to bid for offshore wind projects and shipbuilding contracts.
Unite and GMB have demanded concrete actions by the Scottish and UK Governments to strategically support the offshore wind sector. The trade unions criticised the announcement by the Prime Minister in October 2020 to commit 60 per cent of the turbines to be manufactured in the UK as ‘empty rhetoric’ without a review of the Contracts for Difference (CfD), which should include local content and enforcement clauses.
The trade unions also cited the various powers relating to planning, renewables energy, procurement, the Crown Estate and Marine Scotland which the Scottish Government should be using to exercise greater leverage in the contractual process.
In a joint statement,Unite Scotland Secretary Pat Rafferty and GMB Scotland Secretary Gary Smith said: “The announcement by InfraStrata that two of the BiFab yards will be bought out of administration is welcome news. It is also testimony to our members and their communities who have fought hard to keep these yards alive.
“We look forward to working with the company to ensure it is primed to win contracts for the offshore wind sector, and to having a positive working relationship underpinned by the Fair Work principles. We have always believed that the BiFab yards, and indeed yards and ports all over Scotland, are uniquely placed to capture the benefits of the offshore wind sector.
“However, the story so far has been one of government failure – thousands of jobs and billions of pounds have been outsourced around the world when Scottish communities should have been benefitting from these contracts. Now the Scottish and UK Governments have been given a reprieve and they need to step-up and support the new ownership.
“We urgently need an overhaul of the Contracts for Difference process to ensure local supply clauses are in-built at the outset of major contracts as part of a proper industrial and investment plan for the sector, otherwise the green jobs revolution will remain a fantasy.”
