Anas wants end to zero-hour contracts

EDINBURGH: Scottish Labour will look to stop the use of zero-hour contracts in the public sector under any circumstances, leader Anas Sarwar has said.

The latest election pledge, announced on Sunday, would see companies awarded public contracts barred from signing staff up to such agreements.

Sarwar also announced a new certification scheme that would be awarded to businesses that do not use zero-hour contracts, pay the Scottish living wage and produce an emissions reduction plan or commit to net zero.

The leader said Scotland’s recovery from Covid-19 should also make employment fairer. “Alongside the tragic death toll that this pandemic has caused we have taken an economic hit harder and deeper than the banking crisis,” he said.

“We need to put a jobs recovery at the heart of our plan for a national recovery fromthe pandemic. But we need to make sure that our economic recovery is based on fairness and good work – we cannot go back to the inequalities and the broken economic model pre-Covid.”

He added: “We should bring an end to the use of zero-hours contracts by companies that benefit from public funds and establish a ‘Better Business Scotland’ certification scheme to promote good work principles. Scotland deserves better than the inequalities of the past. Scottish Labour will fight for an economic recovery with fairness at its heart.”