Tracy Gilbert – Usdaw Regional Secretary for Scotland says: “Young workers in Scotland have been disproportionately impacted by the Covid-19 crisis and are more likely to work in sectors, such as retail, hospitality and leisure, which have been most affected by the pandemic.
“Recent research by IPPR Scotland suggests that youth unemployment could peak with over 100,000 young people facing unemployment by the end of the year – over one in three of Scotland’s young workers. It is clear that employers find it too cheap and too easy to make young workers redundant.
“In Scotland the Government has launched the Youth Guarantee Scheme to support young people into education and work following the effects of the coronavirus crisis. While this is a welcome step in the right direction the provisions do not go far enough to support young workers, whose experience of the job market has long been characterised by low pay and job insecurity. Work experience is not enough – we need jobs.”
Usdaw is calling on the STUC to campaign for:
- employment rights to start from day one of employment;
- stronger redundancy rights, including increases to statutory redundancy pay, a levelling up so that young workers have the same entitlement as older workers and qualification for redundancy pay from day one;
- a jobs guarantee element to the Youth Guarantee Scheme to ensure that young workers are able to quickly access high quality employment, and
- employers to be under legal duty to assess the impact their policies, practices and procedures (including working conditions) have on workers’ mental health and act upon the findings.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 400,000 members. Membership has increased by more than one-third over the last couple of decades. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter
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