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SRC and Usdaw jointly call on the Scottish Government to support key workers in retail

Date: 20 March 2020 Shopwokers’ trade union Usdaw and the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) have jointly written to John Swinney MSP, Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, calling for retail workers to be identified as key workers, so they will have access to childcare.
The letter reads:

“NHS staff and our emergency services are doing a fabulous job and rightly form part of the key workers that have been identified. However, as you will know, grocery, food-to-go and pharmacy retailers are working round the clock and incredibly hard at this unprecedented time to make sure the nation continues to be able to access the essential medicines, cleaning/sanitising products and food supplies they need, particularly elderly and vulnerable people.

“It is important therefore that those workers in these sub-sectors of retail who have childcare responsibilities are able to access suitable provision for their children so they can continue to go to work during this difficult time.

“Your colleagues within the Scottish Government have moved remarkably quickly in recent days to support the retail industry and its ability to provide essential services at this challenging time, with important measures on relaxing delivering to stores and warehouses, relaxing store opening times, and removing non-domestic rates. We urge you to build on this and ensure that retail staff are included in the list of ‘key workers’, as is the case we believe in Wales, England and (as of last night) Northern Ireland.”

Stewart Forrest, Scottish Divisional Officer, Usdaw
David Lonsdale, Director, Scottish Retail Consortium

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 @UsdawUnion

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