Tag: GMB Scotland

“After The Applause, Pay Up For Key Workers”

Public service staff will deliver a petition to the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon today on behalf of thousands of key workers, calling on the Scottish Government to recognise the sacrifices of those on the frontline by bringing forward a coronavirus bonus payment.  

GMB Scotland members are campaigning for a £2 an hour additional payment for every hour worked during the lockdown, a figure that would deliver a retrospective payment of as little as £85 extra per week on the basic rate of pay for frontline staff, many of whom earn just under or over £10 an hour.  

The union is citing the example of the devolved Welsh Government’s decision to award carers a £500 bonus, retailers like Tesco who have increased the basic rate of pay by 10 per cent for their staff, and the decision of the French Government to award health workers a €1,500 bonus – in addition to a further €8 billion worth of additional funding for future pay increases.  

GMB Scotland Senior Organiser for Public Services Drew Duffy said: “The frontline response to the coronavirus crisis across the public sector has been largely delivered on the backs of the lowest paid – cleaners, carers, porters, refuse workers and school support staff. 

“When the rest of the country went into lockdown they kept our hospitals clean, lifted our rubbish, looked after the kids of our other key workers in hub schools across Scotland, and they continue to face the crisis within a crisis that is social care.   

 “And while the magnificent public support they received really boosted their morale, they are rightly looking for recognition from the employers and politicians who were quick to clap them.  

“Employers and governments across the UK and beyond are starting to appreciate the real value of this low-paid army and are committing to tackling the damage caused by a decade of cuts.  

“If Scotland really aspires to be a nation of fair work, then the Scottish Government should do the right thing and recognise that there needs to be a reckoning on the value of these workers.  

“The message is loud and clear: After the applause, pay up for our key workers. It’s the very least they deserve for everything they have done for all of us.” 

Scottish prison custody officers launch strike ballot

An industrial action ballot of Prisoner Custody Officers (PCOs) in GeoAmey gets underway today (Monday 13 January) over a pay imposition which will result in staff receiving less than £10 an hour for the next two years.  Continue reading Scottish prison custody officers launch strike ballot

Christmas food shortage threat at Morrisons

Strike ballot gets underway at distribution firm 

Morrisons supermarkets across Scotland could be hit by food shortages in the run up to Christmas as an industrial action ballot gets underway today in its distribution partner XPO Logistic. Continue reading Christmas food shortage threat at Morrisons

“Disastrous” British Gas boss should go now, not later says trade union

British Gas owner Centrica’s chief executive Iain Conn is to step down from his post board next year. He made the announcement as the company posted a pre-tax loss of £446 million in the six months to June. The GMB trade union said Conn had ‘utterly failed’ and should go now, not later. Continue reading “Disastrous” British Gas boss should go now, not later says trade union

Trade Union welcomes ‘sensible’ fracking intervention

GMB Scotland has welcomed a ‘sensible’ intervention by the representative body for the UK’s onshore oil and gas industry (UKOOG) to the Scottish government’s consultation on fracking.

The UKOOG response and the launch of its new website, www.gas4scotland.scot lays out economic and employment opportunities presented by fracking , bringing much needed balance to the debate over Scotland’s energy future.

The industry body’s response follows on from a recent report produced by the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Energy Policy, ‘Natural Gas in the Energy Policy of the UK and Scotland’, commissioned by GMB Scotland, which states the choice facing Scotland is ‘not one of whether to include gas in our energy mix for the foreseeable future, but where the gas will come from?’

Against the backdrop of rising fuel poverty in Scotland, GMB has been pressing the case for an honest debate about Scotland’s energy future, urging politicians to fully examine the cost, environmental and employment implications of winding-down domestic gas production.

GMB Scotland Secretary Gary Smith said: “The debate around fracking among Scotland’s political elite is mired in hypocrisy because as UKOOG rightly point out, we’ve been fracking the North Sea for decades and we’ve been more than happy to reap the rewards.

“GMB’s own recent report shows we are increasingly dependent on imported gas and our energy consumption demands cannot be met without gas.  Abandoning our gas production makes no sense and we need to be pragmatic about fracking.

“The vast majority of Scottish homes are heated by gas while fuel poverty levels are on the up. Is the Scottish government suggesting people will have to rip out their gas boilers and replace them with electric heating that will increase bills three fold?

“That’s just not credible and when you factor the prospect of consumers being forced to go cap in hand to countries like Russia and Qatar for their gas needs in the future then we suspect the vast majority of people in Scotland would have similar concerns.

“The idea that we can affordably heat our homes, power our economy and sustain thousands of jobs without domestic gas production is just ‘pie in the sky’ politics and the main losers will be hard working Scots and the poorest in our society.

“This is a sensible intervention by UKOOG that tackles the superficial demonisation of domestic gas production and lays out the economic and employment opportunities a properly regulated fracking industry could offer Scotland.”

 

GMB call for increase of £1 an hour

‘Members across Scotland say that in their experience you need at least £10 an hour and a full working week to have a decent life free from benefits and tax credits’ – GMB Scotland

coinGMB Scotland is calling for an increase of £1 per hour towards the GMB Congress target of a living wage of at least £10 per hour.

The items in the trade union’s claim, submitted to Cosla last Friday, are: £1 an hour increase on all hourly rates of pay, consolidation of living wage supplements and the removal of all pay points below the living wage pay level. The next review of pay is 1 April 2015.

GMB Scotland launched the pay campaign with photo calls at ten locations across Scotland, with GMB members employed by Scottish local authorities holding up large replica of a £1 coin

Alex McLuckie, GMB Scotland’s Senior Organiser, said: “GMB is kicking off this campaign for Scottish local council workers to receive a £1 an hour increase on their basic salary from April 2015. This is a step towards the target of a living wage of £10 per hour set by GMB Congress in 2014.

“GMB members across Scotland say that in their experience you need at least £10 an hour and a full working week to have a decent life free from benefits and tax credits. Less than £10 an hour means just existing not living. It means a life of isolation, unable to socialise. It means a life of constant anxiety over paying bills and of borrowing from friends, family and pay day loan sharks just to make ends meet.

“Many of our members provide vital frontline services and while these jobs are crucial to many of Scotland’s councils, the people providing these services are some of the lowest of paid.

“Over the years Scotland’s council workers have either received a minimal pay rise or no pay rise at all. Further to this many GMB members may have suffered a cut in earnings through hours being reduced, while at the same time having their workload increased with staff leaving without being replaced.

“With the reality of low pay and increasing workloads, coupled with the vital services which our members provide for Scotland’s councils, GMB Scotland believe £1 an hour rise on all basic salaries is a way of acknowledging the work done by Scotland’s council workers.”

GMB