Scotland’s most senior trade unionist has demanded energy price rises are capped at 4 per cent in a bid to address the cost of living crisis.
STUC general secretary Roz Foyer also called for Holyrood to have the power to implement a £12-a-hour minimum wage and abolish the hated “ fire and rehire” practice used by bosses.
Foyer spoke to the Record as living standards take a massive hit due to soaring inflation and sluggish wage growth.
Ahead of the STUC’s annual Congress next week, she described the response so far by the UK and Scottish Governments as “deeply disappointing”.
A key concern for her is energy bills rising by over 50 per cent and she backs a French-style cap on price rises, paid for by the companies raking in huge profits.
She said: “We’re really looking at a windfall tax for those who profited throughout this pandemic to start to redistribute wealth.
“Our energy cap has grown by 50 per cent this spring and in the autumn it’s going to grow by another 40 per cent. Meanwhile, in France, the government have been able to cap energy price growth at 4 per cent.”
She said the Tory Government should “absolutely” be looking at this type of response for the UK, adding: “I think that a cap of that nature is a lot more affordable than what most families are looking at at the moment, which is a doubling of their energy bills.”
She also believes the Scottish Government could help ease the crisis by boosting public sector pay, backing rent caps and ensuring affordable rail and bus fares.
Foyer said: “Workers have worked their socks off and put themselves and their families at risk throughout this pandemic and now the payback they’re getting is a cost of living crisis that’s making it unaffordable for them to sustain their livelihoods.”
With the Tories unsympathetic to key aspects of the STUC’s agenda, Foyer believes more powers should be transferred to the Scottish Parliament.
She said: “We would like to see areas like immigration, employment law, borrowing powers and fiscal powers, some more powers over taxation.
“Real levers that would make a real difference to Scotland’s ability to undertake economic recovery.”
In practice, she would like Holyrood to use any devolution of employment powers to repeal anti trade union laws, as well as increasing sick pay and the minimum wage.
She added: “As a personal view, I think we should be looking at a significant rise to at least £12 an hour for working people because we’re looking at a huge cost of living increase.”
“The Scottish Government are great at vision, and they have a lot of great initiatives that we fully support, like the idea of a just transition, a wellbeing economy, fair work, community wealth building, but these need to be more than just slogans.
“And sometimes I feel we fall down on the practical implementation measures that we need to take to actually deliver real outcomes for people on the ground.
“It’s great to have the vision, it’s great to be able to talk the talk, but you need to be able to walk the walk and show delivery.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We greatly value our constructive relationship with Scotland’s trade union movement – and we share their ambition to do everything possible to support people during what are very tough times.
“Many of the powers required to tackle the current cost of living, including energy, are reserved to the UK Government which has failed to provide adequate support to households in need. We have set out steps they could take to help with fuel bills and also in following our lead to match the 6% uprating for benefits, and introduce benefits that are supporting families – including the Scottish Child Payment which this month doubled to £20 per week. We will continue to urge them to take action.
“We are also committed to supporting our businesses community and have provided more than £4.6 billion in support since the beginning of the pandemic, including £1.6 billion in rates relief – the most generous of the UK administrations.
“The extensive measures we have taken come despite the UK Government reducing its overall funding to this year’s Scottish Budget.”
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