Just Transition is central to successful climate action

Just Transition policies for climate action take centre stage in the Scottish Parliament today.

This follows key campaigning in Scotland by trade unions and environmental groups.

Just Transition is also the focus in a series of articles in Scottish Left Review, including one by UNISON Scotland Depute Convener Stephen Smellie and another by Francis Stuart, STUC Policy Officer.

Francis writes: “Tackling climate change while building an industrial base for low-carbon manufacturing will require government policy, planning, direction and investment. The Scottish Government’s Just Transition Commission, successfully advocated for by the Just Transition Partnership, provides an opportunity to address these issues.

"Its role is to look at how Scotland achieves a carbon-neutral economy while maximising opportunities in terms of fair work and tackling inequalities.To be effective, it should be independent of government and should have a commitment to look beyond the next two years, to climate change targets which run until 2050.

“The Scottish National Investment Bank also provides an opportunity to leverage in funding for the low-carbon economy, providing patient capital for sectors and organisations which cannot access patient, strategic capital. The Scottish Government’s plans for a publicly owned energy company could also help transform the public policy landscape, although it will have to be far more ambitious than the Scottish Government’s current vision of a company focussed on retail supply. A focus on generation – where the both the money and the decarbonisation opportunities are – will be crucial if it is to play a role in a just transition to a low carbon economy.”

The debate in the Scottish Parliament sees all parties backing the application of just transition principles in Scotland. MSPs are debating a Scottish Government motion and amendments from the Tories, Labour and Greens. Labour’s amendment, from Claudia Beamish MSP, calls for the Parliament to give “further consideration to the establishment of a statutory, long-term just transition commission, which should be well-funded, independent of government and accountable to the Parliament, building on the work of the present non-statutory commission.”

The Scottish Government announced the finalised membership of the Just Transition Commission at the weekend. It starts work later this month and will report in two years.

Among the new members announced are STUC Deputy General Secretary Dave Moxham and Richard Hardy, Prospect National Secretary for Scotland, along with Lang Banks, Director of WWF Scotland - all members of the Just Transition Partnership (JTP), along with UNISON, Friends of the Earth Scotland (FoES) and other unions including the CWU, Unite and UCU.

(Separately, UNISON, along with other energy unions, has very recently called on the UK Government to have talks on Just Transition. UNISON, Unite, GMB and Prospect released a template for a just transition following a conference of energy workers.)

The JTP sent a briefing to MSPs ahead of the debate. (See also the JTP press release and the SLR article by Matthew Crighton, of FoES on the Partnership.)

The briefing says that the concept of a just transition is central to a successful response to climate change, and to building popular support for action to cut emissions.

A just transition must:

●      Put protecting workers’ livelihoods, creating new jobs, and delivering a fairer Scotland at the centre of the move to a low-carbon economy

●      Be embedded across and supported by Government priorities and infrastructure projects including the Climate Change Plan, the Publicly Owned Energy Company, the Scottish National Investment Bank, future economic strategies and the work of the enterprise agencies

●      Involve trade unions, communities and environmentalists at the heart of the process

●      Be put into statute under the Climate Change (Emissions Reductions Targets) (Scotland) Bill

Stephen Smellie’s article in Scottish Left Review argues that the transition must be just to all affected workers, with many in the public sector dealing with the impacts of climate change.

He writes: “A transition to a low carbon economy must happen and that transition needs to be just to the workers. However, the Just Transition agenda is not simply related to these workers in the energy sector whose current jobs are part of an industry that is contributing to the problem. Other workers are in jobs that are at risk. Agricultural and food processing workers face changes related to climate change.

“The water industry, seafarers and other transport workers face significant challenges. High energy using industries such as manufacturing and construction face rising costs. The public sector workers whose budgets for services are cut to divert money to efforts to ameliorate the effects of climate change on infra-structure.

“Other workers have a significant part to play in the transition and making sure that it is just: the science workers creating alternatives; the education workers training the current energy and future workers with the skills necessary for the future low carbon industries; and the public sector workers in environmental protection, infra-structure and planning, designing better communities that use less carbon.”

Meanwhile, continuing the focus, a free Centre for Climate Justice conference looking at Just Transition takes place at Glasgow Caledonian University tomorrow, Wednesday, with Stop Climate Chaos Scotland (SCCS) chair Tom Ballantine among the speakers.

UNISON is part of SCCS. Do please email your MSPs for a stronger climate Bill and/or arrange to meet your MSPs. Easy info on how to do both is here.

And watch this space for more developments as the STUC steps up work around energy and climate change, including considering how workers’ pensions might help address societal challenges including climate change.

As Francis Stuart concludes in SLR, “Scotland’s unions are clear that tackling climate change is a moral, social and economic imperative and Scotland must play its part in reducing emissions. However, meeting targets must ensure that workers and communities benefit and manufacturing is not simply offshored.

“A genuinely just transition, addressing fundamental questions of ownership, is the only way in which we will move to a low carbon economy while building a more equal economy and society.”

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IPCC Report: Political will essential to deliver on 1.5C Paris target

Today’s stark report on the devastating impacts of climate change should make us all sit up and commit to urgent action.

Politicians need to do the right thing and we must make them, including ensuring a fair and just transition to a zero carbon future.

The warning from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) makes it very clear that without urgent and unprecedented changes to energy, transport and land use, the world risks catastrophic temperature rise.

The Guardian report said today: “The world’s leading climate scientists have warned there is only a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people.”

The good news is that the scientists – including the head of Scotland’s new Just Transition Commission - believe it is affordable and feasible to keep to the 1.5C Paris Agreement target, but they point to the need for political will to make sure that policies are put in place in time.

Top priority in Scotland must be to strengthen the climate change Bill currently going through the Scottish Parliament to a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest, with 77% by 2030.

It’s good that the Scottish Government will now seek new advice on meeting 1.5C from the UK Committee on Climate Change (CCC), but it’s clear from the IPCC report and the recent CCC report on Scottish progress that we must have a step change in cutting emissions, particularly in transport and agriculture.

UNISON wants to see massive investment in public transport, including renationalisation of rail and reregulation of buses, as part of the move to greener transport - and much greater public ownership of energy, including municipal energy.

We are campaigning with the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition and the Just Transition Partnership (JTP) to strengthen the Climate Change (Emissions Reduction Targets) (Scotland) Bill.

As well as stronger targets, we want Scotland’s new Just Transition Commission to be set in statute in the Bill and to report to Parliament on progress.

The JTP welcomed Environment Secretary Roseanna Cunningham’s appointment last month of Professor Jim Skea as Chair of the Commission.

Dave Moxham, Deputy General Secretary of the STUC and co-chair of the Just Transition Partnership, stressed that Scotland’s trade unions see tackling climate change as a moral, social and economic imperative. However, in meeting emissions reduction targets, we must ensure a just transition for the workforce and communities which currently extract or depend on the use of fossil fuels.

Just transition includes both measures to support retraining and new jobs for those in affected industries, with support for workers and communities, and measures to produce new, green and decent jobs and livelihoods as well as healthy communities. It aims to address environmental, social and economic issues together.

There are clear economic opportunities if we are ahead of the game in building a greener future, but we must ensure no-one is left behind and so climate plans must be integrated with an industrial strategy.

Professor Skea, is co-chair of the working group behind today’s IPCC report. His comments today are reported in the Guardian:

“We have presented governments with pretty hard choices. We have pointed out the enormous benefits of keeping to 1.5C, and also the unprecedented shift in energy systems and transport that would be needed to achieve that.

“We show it can be done within laws of physics and chemistry. Then the final tick box is political will. We cannot answer that. Only our audience can – and that is the governments that receive it.”

That’s where we all come in. There are no jobs on a dead planet.

Let’s make sure Scotland’s politicians continue the unanimous commitment in 2009 of support for world leading legislation. We need them now to agree stronger targets and decisive policy action to protect the planet for future generations, with public sector action crucial in leading the way.

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Welcome climate change & #JustTransition commitments from Scottish Labour

Good news for hopes of ramping up the ambition in Scotland's new Climate Bill. Scottish Labour has today backed a net zero target by 2050 at the latest.


This is what the Stop Climate Chaos Scotland coalition has been pushing for. The Scottish Government is only committed to a 90% emissions reduction target by 2050, so Labour is going the extra 10%. And the party is backing a 77% 2030 target.


Scottish Labour's new policy, announced by Claudia Beamish MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change, Environment and Land Reform, also includes the Just Transition Partnership’s call for the new Just Transition Commission to be in the Bill, set up on a statutory long-term basis.
 
The JTP’s co-chair, Dave Moxham, Deputy General Secretary of the STUC, welcomed the Just Transition commitment, said that unions see tackling climate change as a moral imperative, and stressed the importance of a statutory Just Transition Commission.
 
UNISON is a member of the JTP and of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland. If you haven't already, please support the SCCS E-Action, calling on MSPs to improve the Bill so we can end Scotland's contribution to climate change within a generation.


Here are the press releases from the STUC and SCCS, including the full comments from Dave Moxham, and a welcome from SCCS. The Labour press release is copied below.




Press Release: STUC RESPONDS TO SCOTTISH LABOUR CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY


Welcoming Scottish Labour’s commitment to put a Just Transition at the heart of their plans to tackle climate change, Dave Moxham, Deputy General Secretary of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) and co-chair of the Just Transition Partnership, said:

“Scotland’s trade unions are clear that tackling climate change is a moral imperative and Scotland must play its part in reducing emissions.  However, targets must not be met at the expense of the workforce and communities which currently extract or depend on the use of fossil fuels. That is why a Just Transition for workers and communities is so important.

“A statutory Just Transition Commission, involving workers with real frontline experience in the development of a proper industrial strategy, offers the opportunity to reduce emissions while creating new, good quality jobs and benefiting communities across Scotland.”

NOTES

The Just Transition Partnership was formed by Friends of the Earth Scotland and the STUC in 2016. Membership includes Unite Scotland, UNISON Scotland, UCU Scotland, CWU Scotland, PCS Scotland and WWF Scotland.

Press Release sent on behalf of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland

SCOTTISH LABOUR ANNOUNCES BACKING OF NET ZERO EMISSIONS TARGET – SCCS comment

Responding to the announcement today (Monday) of Scottish Labour’s long-term Climate Change Bill policy, which sets a target for Scotland to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest, Gina Hanrahan of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland said:

“It’s great to see Scottish Labour back calls for the upcoming Climate Change Bill to include a target to end Scotland’s contribution to climate change by 2050 at the latest and increased action over the next decade.  It’s now up to all parties in the Scottish Parliament to come together, as they did in 2009, to ensure we continue to be amongst the world leading nations in tackling climate change. 

“Labour’s commitment to a Just Transition Commission in the Bill is also to be welcomed. Such a commission would ensure that the transition to a zero-carbon economy supports workers and communities, and creates new, green jobs.

“No country on earth will be left untouched by the worsening consequences of a failure to move fast. While we’ve enjoyed a period of record warm weather; the extremes of heat experienced around the world this year and over recent years can mean increased mortality, drought, fire, hunger and crop failure. We have all the solutions we need now to get us on the right pathway. Good policies to tackle climate change can help us avoid the worst impacts, but also bring new jobs, cleaner air, and reduced burdens on our NHS. MSPs of all parties need to act together so Scotland can play its part and enjoy all those benefits.”

Ends

NEWS FROM SCOTTISH LABOUR

NEWS: SCOTTISH LABOUR LAUNCHES CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY WITH CLEAR TARGETS TO REACH NET ZERO EMISSIONS BY 2050

Scottish Labour will today today (Monday, August 13th) announced its long-term Climate Change Bill policy, which sets a target for Scotland to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 at the latest.

This plan is in contrast with the Scottish Government, who propose reducing emissions by 90% by 2050.

Labour proposes a pathway to zero emissions with interim targets of a 56% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and 77% by 2030, supported by a Just Transition Commission. 

Launching the policy at the BRE Innovation Park at Ravenscraig, Claudia Beamish MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change, Environment and Land Reform will say that it is an “immensely important instrument for Scotland’s future and our standing in the global community.” 

The BRE Innovation Park, situated on the site of the former Ravenscraig Steel works, showcases bold inclusive future opportunities with its full-scale demonstration buildings displaying innovative design, materials and technologies for low carbon living. BRE engages with New College Lanarkshire, highlighting how vital the development of initial and transferable skills will be as we progress towards net zero emissions. 

Scottish Labour will continue to engage with trade unions, businesses, local government, and the third sector to develop the plans for long-term climate action and the ‘Just Transition’ for workers. 

Claudia Beamish MSP, Scottish Labour Spokesperson for Climate Change, said: 

“This summer has been another of record high temperatures, prolonged heatwaves, and extreme weather.  It is our duty to step up for global climate justice, and Scottish Labour’s climate policy addresses these obligations, while giving Scotland time to adapt in a just way for the workforce and communities. 

“This policy recognises the huge inequality in Scotland’s current and historic greenhouse gas emissions, compared to other parts of the world.  The most catastrophic effects of climate change are impacting on the lives and environments of those who did the least to cause it, and this policy recognises greater ambition is needed for those at the front line of facing the effects of climate change.  

“Inter-generational justice is also central to this policy.  We cannot push the job of tackling climate change onto the shoulders of the young.  We need interim targets of 56% by 2020, and 77% by 2030, to ensure we start to act now. 

“Based on Scotland’s historical emissions since the Industrial Revolution, and per capita wealth, Scottish Labour has concluded we must hit net zero emissions by 2050, at the latest. 

“The SNP Government’s draft Bill is far too timid, and ignored the 99% of consultation respondents who called for steeper targets.

“Scottish Labour has always led actions for fair economic transformation and social justice. Ambitious targets mean a clear signal to markets; giving confidence to businesses, investors, and communities. Action must now be spread fairly across all sectors and wider society.

“Scottish Labour will always be the party of the workers, and a statutory, long-term ‘Just Transition Commission’ must be in the Climate Change Bill to safeguard our communities and jobs against injustice. 

“For the sake of those on the frontline of climate change around the world, for our beautiful planet, and for our children: no more complacency – now for real ambition.”

BRE Housing and Energy Director Lori McElroy added:

"When making decisions about targets for emissions and energy efficiency, we should start from the premise of making the best use of scarce resources and impacts on people.  Over a quarter of Scotland’s households are still living in fuel poverty – that's 650,000 homes – this is where our efforts need to be focused.

“Research suggests that the improvement of existing homes could support up to 6,500 jobs throughout Scotland over the next ten years, giving a much-needed boost to the Scottish economy.  BRE is working closely with New College Lanarkshire to support skills and training in this area.

"Poorly heated, damp and cold homes can pose significant health risks for people.  In the winter of 2016/17, an additional 2,720 people died during the winter months in Scotland, compared with the average for the rest of the year.  The World Health Organisation has in the past estimated that 30% of such deaths are attributable to cold homes.

“The BRE Innovation Park@Ravenscraig exists to test solutions to our ageing building stock – showcasing new ways of thinking about constructing new and retrofitting existing buildings, allowing innovative approaches to be tested in a safe environment. Our research shows that better, warmer, safer homes not only promote better quality of life for people but could also save the NHS in Scotland around £60m per year.” 

ENDS

 

 

The case for Just Transition

Any plan to tackle climate change has to have Just Transition and an industrial strategy at its core.

Those of us who take a close interest in climate change tend to leap into the detailed aspects of the policy. In the era of Trump and false news, we should always remember to start any discussion by making the case for tackling climate change. 

In short, we are faced with rising temperatures relating to the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. To address this, the Paris Climate Change agreement seeks 1.5°C and 2°C commitments. However, if we continue with ineffective mitigation measures, in less than 12 years current emissions will see the 1.5°C aspiration pass by, with the 2°C carbon budget exceeded by the mid 2030s. We need to put long-term planetary stewardship before short-term profit, if our generation is going to bequeath a sustainable planet to our children. 

Scotland can rightly take credit for our radical Climate Change Act, secured with cross party support. However, grand aspirations and ambitious long-term targets need to be backed up by practical action. A new Climate Change Plan should be an opportunity to set out a clear pathway for slashing emissions and building a thriving green economy. Sadly, Parliament found Plan fell remarkably short on new policy action and lacked credibility in key areas like the budget, energy efficiency, cleaner transport and agricultural emissions.

There is public support for stronger action. 99% of people who responded to the consultation want the Government to commit to net zero emissions by 2050 at the latest, and increased action in the next decade with a stronger 2030 target.

On Just Transition, we should welcome the announcement of Just Transition Commission, but again this has to be about more than just process. For example, the growth in renewables has benefited our energy mix, but Scotland has a shockingly poor record on manufacturing jobs associated with renewable energy. Workers in these industries are entitled to expect that Just Transition plans are closely linked to a new industrial strategy. Warm words and vague aspirations don't pay the rent, or put food on the table.

Just Transition plans should build in the principles that livelihoods will be maintained; and training and re-training will be funded. They must also include measures to tackle disadvantage in the labour market.

Practical action should include:

• A heat map of vulnerable industries and companies.
• Advance planning, not last minute BiFab style interventions.
• Links to a green industrial strategy and Fair Work principles.
• Investment, including the National Investment Bank and pension funds.
• Community benefit including the use of local supply chains.
• Recognising that ownership matters, including taking a stake in enterprises to ensure just transition and support for co-operatives.
• Using public sector procurement to promote transition.

There are international examples of good practice that we can call upon including; Statoil, Alberta coal and the Latrobe Valley in Australia. Canada and New Zealand are also looking to develop Just Transition commissions.

I am concerned that the Scottish Government is planning a very low key Commission model, reporting just to ministers with a short life span. The Commission needs to adopt a social dialogue model with social protections; an independent secretariat and adequate resourcing, not a rehash existing funding pots

It should also report to Parliament as well as ministers, allowing the economy and climate change committees to scrutinise its work. There is a case for putting it on statutory footing in the new Climate Change Act, but at a minimum it must have a balanced membership, with credible people, a realistic work programme and extensive worker engagement.

The Just Transition Partnership will shortly be publishing their detailed proposals for the Just Transition Commission. These proposals will argue that the focus should be on transforming Scotland’s whole economy through driving the transition to low carbon emissions, attending to jobs and job quality and the needs of workers and geographical communities. Setting out what needs to be done and how it can be done expeditiously and with a fair distribution of costs and benefits. 

Protecting our pensions and the planet

Pensions are meant to safeguard our future, but that future is threatened by the burning of carbon in fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. It's also a poor investment, which is why there is a growing movement to divest our pensions from fossil fuel investments.

I was in London yesterday for our UK annual pensions conference, which included the launch of UNISON’s new guide on this issue. It is designed to help members of local government pension schemes push for changes in the investment of their funds. The aim is to explore alternative investment opportunities, allowing funds to sell their shares and bonds in fossil fuels and to go carbon-free.

This is an issue that UNISON Scotland has championed for several years with our ReIvest campaign partners, FoE and Common Weal. Scottish Local Government Pension Scheme funds have some £1.8bn invested in fossil fuel companies - that figure grows to £16bn across the UK.

New government regulations for fossil fuels have raised the costs of high-polluting industries and reduced their investment appeal. Equally, emerging clean and green technology has created new and lucrative business opportunities for funds. The UK government is also consulting on allowing pension schemes to dump fossil fuel investments by dropping ‘best returns’ legal rules.

In Scotland, all local authorities, including those who administer the local SLGPS funds, have a statutory duty to reduce emissions in accordance with the Climate Change (Scotland) Act. That is an additional reason for challenging investment proposals to invest in fossil fuels.

One of the strengths of this new guide is to challenge the conventional wisdom that fiduciary duty is a barrier to divestment. The law is actually quite clear, pension funds should consider any factors that have a  financial impact on the performance of their investments, including social, environmental and corporate governance factors. Trustees can take account of non- financial factors where they have good reason to think that scheme members share their view, and there is no risk of major financial harm to the fund.

The guide also sets out a range of actions anyone who is concerned about this issue can take - not just our union branches and members.

By investing in fossil fuel extraction, our local councils are attempting to take a short term profit from climate change. As public bodies, councils have a responsibility to work for the public good,  they shouldn’t be financially and politically supporting the most destructive industry on the planet. Fossil fuel investments undermine existing Scottish and local authority climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Let's protect our hard earned pensions and leave a planet fit for future generations.

Extending the Scottish Living Wage through procurement - vital in social care

A new UNISON Scotland Briefing has been published explaining how public bodies can use procurement to extend the Scottish Living Wage to all those working in public services.

Nearly all public sector workers in Scotland are now paid the Living Wage, (uprated this month to £8.25 per hour) but thousands who deliver public services in the community and private sectors don't yet receive it, particularly in social care.

New Statutory Guidance from the Scottish Government sets out how the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 enables all public bodies to spread the benefits. Previous legal objections no longer apply.

Infrastructure Secretary Keith Brown said that employers "must now recognise that they cannot adopt exploitative practices in relation to their workers and expect... lucrative public contracts."

The Guidance on Addressing Fair Work Practices sets out how public bodies can legally include payment of the Living Wage in contracts, along with other employment matters, such as trade union recognition and representation and no "inappropriate" use of zero hours contracts.

(The Living Wage is a voluntary level for over 18s, higher than the current statutory National Minimum Wage (NMW) of £6.70 per hour for over 21s. It is an independent calculation of what is required to cover the basic cost of living.

While the increased legal minimum announced by Chancellor George Osborne as a new National Living Wage (NLW) of £7.20 per hour for over 25s in his July 2015 Budget is welcome, it is in effect a higher NMW, not a real living wage. It is nothing like enough to compensate for cuts to tax credits. IPPR Scotland said for low and middle income Scottish families the impact is "vastly outweighed" by the cuts.)

It is vital to progress the Living Wage in social care, which is facing a growing staffing crisis. The Scottish Government, COSLA and care providers are currently involved in discussions about how best to drive up pay in the care at home/housing support sector, recognising the links between pay, quality of care, retention and recruitment etc.

An interim funding deal is likely, with work continuing on a more robust proposal for 2016/17, alongside analysis of the full financial impact of the NLW 2016 to 2020 announcement and the overall cost of residential and non-residential social care.

UNISON wants to see the Living Wage included in all social care contracts and will also press our Ethical Care Charter. However, we accept that this has to be fully funded.  We welcome the Scottish Labour party's proposal to pay the Living Wage to all those working in social care.

UNISON branches should study the guidance in detail and ensure that public bodies: revise their procurement strategy to include the Scottish Living Wage; specify compliance with the S52 guidance in procurement documents and the consequences for the LW; revise their tender evaluation procedures to take account of the LW and other employment and 'fair work' standards. These can include no zero or nominal-hours contracts, trade union recognition and the Ethical Care Charter.

Under the Act, public bodies are required to set out their general policy on the Living Wage in their procurement strategy. Bids can be evaluated against that policy and payment of the Living Wage can become an enforceable performance clause. For contracts with a strong workforce element, such as social care, there can be a significant weighting in the evaluation for workforce matters.

With a civil society coalition behind '10 Asks' on the legislation, we had called for the Living Wage to be mandatory for all those working on public contracts. The guidance does not go that far but is an improvement.

UNISON still believes that EU law would allow it to be set as a contract condition. Advocate General Mengozzi's opinion, given on 9 September 2015 in RegioPost GmbH v Stadt Landau (C-115/14), was that EU law did not prevent contracting authorities setting conditions relating to the payment of minimum wages.

Further Statutory Guidance later in 2015 will cover areas including the Sustainable Procurement Duty, fair trade and tax dodging. There is separate guidance on blacklisting.

World leaders urged to follow Scotland’s ambitious climate laws

As world leaders gather to discuss climate change tomorrow in New York, campaigners today urged them to follow Scotland in committing to ambitious legislation to cut greenhouse emissions.

Stop Climate Chaos Scotland launched a short film documenting how thousands of ordinary people, concerned about the risk to our planet, lobbied politicians here, resulting in unanimously passed world leading legislation.

The Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009 set legally binding targets of cutting emissions by 42% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, compared to 1990 levels. The targets also include Scotland’s share of targets from international aviation and shipping.

UNISON Scotland joined today on social media with other members of SCCS in promoting the film and a briefing to inspire other countries to be ambitious themselves, and together in a new global agreement.

Ten civil society priorities for the Procurement Reform Bill

The Scottish Government’s long-awaited Procurement Reform Bill was published last week – to major disappointment on a number of issues, particularly the Living Wage and sustainability.

UNISON, of course welcomes the fact that blacklisting is highlighted, along with the inappropriate use of zero hours contracts, as examples of practices that could see companies excluded from public sector contracts.

We had campaigned along with the STUC and other unions for action against blacklisting to be included in the Bill. We also wanted to see much stronger measures than are proposed for excluding companies involved in tax dodging.

However, there is widespread disappointment that the Scottish Government has made no mention of the Scottish Living Wage in the Bill or its accompanying documents. The Scottish Government is correctly a Living Wage employer itself, but ensuring contractors pay the Living Wage could make a major difference to tackling low pay, as well as helping local economies.

UNISON, as part of a coalition of coalitions involving the STUC, Enough Food for Everyone If, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Scottish Fair Trade Forum and Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, has ten key asks for the Bill.

Scottish public services tackling climate change

UNISON Scotland has long argued that public services must lead by example in action on climate change.

In today’s Herald newspaper Paul Wedgwood of the Carbon Trust praises the world-leading legally binding climate targets in Scotland’s Climate Change Act.

And he says: “Action and leadership by the public sector will be the key to unlocking the scale of transformation required to create a sustainable Scotland by 2050.”

Yet he highlights that, of the recommended measures in carbon management plans developed by the Carbon Trust with 150 public sector bodies, two thirds have still to be implemented.