A £25,000 salary is not enough to prevent poverty and parents are turning to loan sharks to pay for school uniforms, Scotland’s most senior trade union leader has warned.
STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon needs to “get a grip” and start treating the soaring cost of living as a “humanitarian crisis”.
In an exclusive interview with the Sunday Mail, Foyer said the living wage and minimum wage levels need an immediate review, and jobs which once commanded a good basic salary no longer provide enough to live on.
She said: “Over half of local government workers, 55 per cent, are on less than £25,000 a year and that is not enough of an income to enable you to get through this crisis. I’ve been out on picket lines an awful lot and people are taking action because they’re afraid of what the future holds – people don’t take strike action lightly.
“They do it to protect themselves and their families. The thing that really struck me when talking to low income workers was debt.
“The debt is building up and I even heard some talk about using loan sharks to pay for school uniforms and how are they going to pay for Christmas. This is the sort of conversation that is coming up.”
A report by charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation this week stated that as of April this year a single person had to earn £25,500 to live comfortably while a couple with two children had to bring in £43,400. Foyer said that the economy has changed so much even since April that people will now have to earn more than this to have a decent standard of living.
Jobs like opticians, solicitors, dental nurses and veterinary nurses – highly regarded positions – attract average salaries of below £25,000 and would not give people enough to survive on with the rising energy and food prices, as well as rent and mortgage rates.
Foyer said: “Making exact predictions can be a wee bit dangerous as everybody has different outgoings and houses are harder to heat than others etc. There are very much generalisations but the minimum as of April was £25,500 for a single person.
“Fuel bills have gone up by four and a half times, that’s before what we’re facing going into this winter. Inflation rates may get up towards 20 per cent, so these wage levels are already too low to keep up with that.”
The union chief said there had to be an urgent cash injection by Sturgeon and her ministers to help public sector staff, with thousands primed to march at Holyrood on Thursday. The protest will coincide with the opening First Minister’s Questions of the new parliamentary term.
In a direct challenge to Sturgeon, Foyer said the Scottish Government could use many of its existing powers, rather than continuing to blame Westminster, to raise cash.
She said: “This is a humanitarian crisis, and it could be a life or death situation for the poorest and most vulnerable communities if the government doesn’t take action. Pensioners who are already using libraries as unofficial ‘warm banks’ are now talking about cooking less, skipping meals and not using their heating.
“The Scottish Government has powers over taxation, they can use them. We have an economy in Scotland that is every bit as bad as the rest of the UK – a growing gap between the rich and poor.
“The two richest families in Scotland have the same net wealth as the poorest 20 per cent of the population, and we need the government to use its taxation and fiscal powers to tax those top rate earners. They could also tax business more effectively, and change how council tax works to make it more progressive.
“On pay, taxation is key to pay for it all but they could put up the pay of public sector workers, and give them a significant payrise. That would inject money in people’s pockets and into the economy, as many families in Scotland have a public sector worker in the family.
“There’s workers coming together to press the Scottish Government on pay, but they’re claiming there’s not enough money. Well they’re beginning to find money now in the face of worker anger –they can do more.”
Foyer said alongside using its power of taxation, Holyrood ministers should look at bringing essential services such as transport and energy back into public ownership and implement a rent freeze for both public and private sector homes to stop people becoming homeless. She also said the level of the living wage had to be increased and has supported the TUC’s recent call for minimum wage to rise from £9.18 an hour to £15.
Foyer said: “The Scottish living wage, £9.50, is a really good example of how fast things are moving and it is out of touch with what’s needed right now. The scale of inflation is becoming clear, and the [living wage] is going to have to be urgently reviewed so that we’re keeping up with it.”
Glasgow born Foyer, 49, was appointed general secretary of the STUC in February 2020 – the first woman to hold the position in its 125-year history. She began her trade union activism in the benefits agency more than 25 years ago and had about 20 years of involvement and roles within the STUC before becoming general secretary.
Ahead of Thursday’s march on the Scottish Parliament, Foyer issued an ultimatum to politicians – and urged workers to turn out in their droves to call for better pay. She said: “My message to all politicians, of every political persuasion, is you’re either with us or you’re against us, and if you’re with us you should be standing by us and supporting the action we’re taking.
“I’ve witnessed frontline workers going through terrible circumstances during the pandemic, but they did so to keep our society going and I understand the palpable anger they are now feeling. If politicians think that people are going to be backing down, they need to think again.”
Asked about their response to the cost of living crisis, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We are doing everything possible within our limited powers and finite budget to help address the cost of living crisis – however, most of the key policy levers are held by the UK Government, which needs to take urgent action. We have allocated almost £3billion in this financial year that will contribute towards mitigating the increased costs crisis.”
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