Nationally, Prospect has been working really hard, reaching furloughing agreements with many employers and continuing to pressure the Treasury into improving both the Job Retention Scheme and the Self-Employed Support Scheme, which as we’ve reported before, sees many Prospect members currently falling through the gaps in the schemes.

You’ll hopefully have seen the short video Prospect has made of members we have helped, but it’s here if you haven’t yet seen it.

COVID-19 Group

Our meetings with Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Business and Fair Work, continue this week. We have concentrated a lot of time at those meetings on supporting our members at Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance Limited (PAML), again more of which later, but here are the key updates about other issues.

Due to pressure from all unions, the Scottish Government has tightened up its public health guidance in relation to social distancing and work. The new guidance was issued on April 4^th and for here is the link for the full information. For ease of reference, the key part of the guidance is set out below:

“The revised guidance sets out all business workplaces that are not being specifically required to close should consider a key set of questions– and at all times work on the precautionary basis:

Is what you do essential or material to the effort against the virus or to the wellbeing of society?

Are you able to demonstrate and give confidence to your workforce that you can consistently practice safe social distancing and comply with ALL other standard health and safety requirements?

If the answer to either of the above questions is no, the advice of the Chief Medical Officer on a precautionary basis is to close.”

This is the advice that is relevant for workplaces in Scotland. Different advice, which offers less protection for workers, is being issued by the UK Government.

Please try and make sure that your employer follows the right guidance. Contact your rep or full-time officer if you are having issues.

We will shortly have a single point of contact which unions can use to bring to the attention of the government, all those workplaces which are not following the guidance. The government will then be able to follow up, and liaise with the HSE, council environmental health officers and, where necessary, the police.

Tripartite working groups

Prospect has been invited to take up a place on the tripartite working groups, which the Scottish Government is establishing to cover critical national infrastructure sectors.

These groups will continue to develop guidance on essential and non-essential work in these sectors, but also start to engage on, and develop, plans for moving out of the current crisis and out of this lockdown.

Prospect will play a role in the groups discussing Energy, Transport, Defence, Government, Civil Nuclear and Communications. Work on these groups will start this week.

 

Supporting our self-employed members

During the COVID-19 Group meetings Prospect has consistently led on the need for the Scottish Government to intervene to ensure our self-employed members are not left unsupported by the failings of the UK Government’s Self-employed Support Scheme.

Thanks to our pressure Creative Scotland introduced the bursary scheme which we’ve reported on previously. Thanks to our continuing pressure this week Scottish Government officials are looking at the feasibility of introducing individual grant payments, similar to those being paid in Ireland, to those members who will not receive any other support.

This is at an early stage of consideration and it’s not guaranteed, but we will continue to push the Scottish Government on this issue in the coming weeks.

Other non Covid-19 Group Activity

The worst employer in Scotland?

This is what we are asking about Prestwick Aircraft Maintenance Limited (PAML), based at Prestwick Airport. Our members there, who have refused to take a 50% pay cut for the dubious honour of working their full hours, without appropriate social distancing have started to be dismissed.

How the employer squares dismissing staff who apparently are engaged in “critical and essential work”, is baffling to Prospect, the media, the Scottish Government, and many people who shown their support on social media.

This week culminated in a joint letter to Fiona Hyslop, from myself and Grahame Smith, the General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, calling on the Scottish Government, as the effective landlord of PAML to enforce a furloughed closure. We have had an initial response to this letter, and we are working on a response.

Public Sector Pay

We have today reached agreement with the Scottish Government that bodies covered by the Public Sector Pay Policy published in the budget can pay the 3% or £750 basic award as set out in the policy as soon as is practicable.

This will vary across bodies, especially as some are impacted by funding shortfalls as a result of closures, but all the Senior Officers across the sector have been written to by Kate Forbes, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, with an instruction to pay by the end of May to those bodies not significantly impacted by COVID-19.

This does not constitute our acceptance of a pay offer, or an end to negotiations, but we believe that members would welcome the certainty that an increase would be paid.

We will be meeting with Scottish Government officials weekly to progress this issue

Obviously this only applies to public sector workers covered by Scottish public sector pay policy, other members will need to keep informed about developments in their own departments as updated by Prospect.

Passenger Checks and Staff Safety

The issue of members in aviation being exposed to the virus because of lack of checks at airports has been raised through the offshore liaison group.

Success Stories

It’s not just been a busy week for Prospect. Here are a few success stories from other sectors of the economy where unions have been winning for their members:

• Our colleagues in Unite, Unison and the GMB won a significant victory for social care staff and PPE last week
• EIS were able to reach an agreement over the pay of supply teachers which we think is an important step forward
• The STUC has published its findings from a survey of workers across Scotland. The findings show just how important union membership is to safeguarding jobs and wellbeing across Scotland.

All the successes by union across Scotland are achieved because of the members. Please take the time to encourage any colleagues you are in contact with (either physically or virtually) to join Prospect, and when you speak to friends or family remind them of the positive work all unions are doing to save jobs and save lives, and please encourage them to join a union too!