Chamber and committees

The First Minister is absolutely right to say that, if such an injustice had been experienced by men—if they had been treated in the way that the WASPI women have been treated—something would have been done years ago to remedy the injustices that they faced. Those injustices are typical of the structural and systemic inequalities that women face in many—some would say all—aspects of life.

Despite equalities legislation being in place for decades, we still see gender pay gaps and unequal access to services, the labour market, benefits and so much more. We know that inequalities and discrimination do not stop there, so it is right that, perhaps in stark contrast to the past couple of weeks in Scottish politics, there has been a fair degree of consensus across the chamber today. I wish that we could get such agreement on all equalities issues.

I thank those who have contributed to today’s debate. It is important that so many different WASPI groups and women have been recognised and celebrated in the chamber. I hope that we see political action at Westminster to match the words that we have heard here.

I turn briefly to the two amendments that are in front of us. I have listened carefully to the contributions from Douglas Ross, Paul O’Kane and their colleagues. Despite our agreement, I am afraid that I cannot support the Conservative amendment, because it would remove the clause that talks specifically about the need for a “higher level of compensation” for WASPI women to properly reflect the financial harm that they have faced.

Today is May day—a day for both workers and Beltane. I sometimes wonder whether, deep in the mists of time, those two days were linked. Beltane and other May day traditions marking the beginning of summer often involved rituals in which an ordinary person was chosen to be a lord of misrule: someone to take the place of the lord or master and govern in their place for that day or a certain period.

Beltane traditions were an important element of pre-modern cultures, when power could not be wielded in a universal way as the modern state seeks to do. Almost no pre-modern culture revered those in power and left them there all the time. Often, those in power were figures of fun—not in the way that a leader who lasts less long than a lettuce is a figure of fun, but structurally.

May day has its origins as we know it today, as workers day, in the Haymarket massacre in Chicago. The massacre happened during a campaign for an eight-hour working day, which has its modern equivalent in the current campaign for a four-day working week. Just as the wealthy who lived off the work that was done by others argued that 19th century workers should be forced to work 12 to 16-hour days, so the wealthy today, who live off the work that is done by others, suggest that a four-day week would be catastrophic. Of course, we know that neither is true. One hundred years ago, fair working hours were good for everyone; now, fair working weeks are, similarly, good for everyone.

However, I think that the roots of May day go back beyond the 1886 campaign for an eight-hour day. So, what is the link between May day and Beltane? The action for the campaign for an eight-hour day began with a strike of industrial workers across the United States. They chose 1 May as the start date for their strike, and I think that we can assume that it was for a good reason.

We are talking about an era in which there is very little written evidence of what happened with working-class people—much less evidence of where they exercised their power. Workers did not get to shape the narrative of the history that we assume as fact. What I think might have happened was that many of the lords of misrule who were chosen to govern for a day turned out to be better rulers than the authorities of the day. They turned the world upside down. They enjoyed more popularity and they reversed unfair decisions. They highlighted the often self-interested nature of power. I think that it is safe to assume that that probably ended pretty badly for them when the normal order of things resumed.

We see parallels with that today, with structures of power and elites with vested interests in the status quo using their power and influence to keep progressive change from rising. That is why we see public bodies still failing to pay the living wage to workers, including—to my dismay—companies that are owned by the Scottish Government. It is why we see too many workers, including those who are contracted to provide public services, still not receiving the real living wage.

We see a shocking situation in which maternity leave is unequal across sectors, including—shamefully—in the public sector. We have on-going fair pay disputes across Moray, Fife, Dundee, West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Falkirk councils. There continue to be job evaluation issues in Glasgow, and discriminatory practices are used by contractors that deliver council services.

Very directly, we have the continued refusal by the United Kingdom Government and Opposition to devolve employment law. If we had those powers, we might be able to go some way towards creating a good example.

As we face the problems of the future, we need to find ways to work together to deliver a better world. Essential to that work must be our engagement with workers and their trade unions. Many of us in the chamber are long-time trade unionists—I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am a member of Unite the union.

Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a festival of trade unionism in Dundee. The Speak Oot festival of events, although it might not quite involve the appointment of a lord of misrule, has seen workers, activists, community organisers, campaigners and politicians from across the city and beyond, and from across many political parties, come together to debate, learn, share, celebrate and show solidarity with one another. I really enjoyed attending several events, and I pay tribute to the organising group for such a great festival.

Over the past couple of years, I have been privileged to work closely with the Fire Brigades Union and its DECON campaign. It is only right that some of the bravest of public servants are treated properly and are given the support, facilities and training that they need to keep themselves safe and to clean carcinogenic toxins off their bodies, clothes and equipment while they work to save our lives and our communities. I put on record again my support for the women in the FBU who are fighting for 52—for improved maternity pay by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service—to bring our service in line with several others across the rest of the United Kingdom. I look forward to marking, with the FBU and others, international firefighters day this Saturday.

As we heard yesterday in Bill Kidd’s members’ business debate on recognising the 50th anniversary of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, trade unions have played a pivotal role in improving the conditions in which their members work. I know that we will hear about some specific campaigns during this debate, but I highlight one last one: Unite the union’s fair hospitality charter, with its “Get ME home safely” campaign. Employers have a responsibility to ensure that their workers—those who are responsible for the functioning and success of an employer’s service or business—are safe as they make their way home after work.

I am proud of the record of Scottish Greens in delivering positive change for workers across Scotland through our work with the Scottish Government over the past couple of years, particularly on fair work. However, we have so much more to do. We need to challenge the wealthy and elites to deliver a fair and just world. We need to turn the world upside down.

I end with a short extract from the folk song “The World Turned Upside Down”:

“You poor take courage
You rich take care
This earth was made a common treasury
For everyone to share
All things in common
All people one
We come in peace”.

Pay discrimination appears to be endemic in local government. The GMB union has active equal pay cases in six local authorities, including Dundee City Council. Job evaluation is an on-going issue in Glasgow, and a local authority contracting company used by Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross councils uses discriminatory practices. Today is May day, international workers day. Will the Deputy First Minister agree to meet the GMB union to discuss the issues that its members face and agree to support the development of a strategy to deal with pay discrimination in local government?

Every 13 minutes, a WASPI woman dies. Every 13 minutes, a woman who might have lost several years’ worth of her pension—maybe as much as £42,000—dies without justice. As a result of changes that were made in the Pensions Act 1995 that were designed to equalise pensions, women who were born in the 1950s have lost out, with as many as 3.6 million women affected. That number includes at least 23,000 women in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

None of those women disagrees with the pension equalisation. They do, however, disagree with the unfair way in which the changes were introduced. Significant changes to their pension age were imposed without widespread consultation, with little or no notice, and much faster than they were promised. Some women have been hit by more than one increase, with subsequent pension changes in 2011.

As we have heard, in March this year, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman ruled that the UK Government had mishandled changes to the pension age, leaving many of those women facing hardship.

Until the 1990s, many women were not allowed to join company pension schemes and, because they did not have time to plan for the pension changes, they are now struggling to make ends meet. Many of the women who are affected started working before equalities legislation came into place in the 1970s. Many were forced to leave work if they got married, and many did not get maternity pay if they had children. Older women are now often unable to find appropriate jobs, and many cannot work, as they are carers for other family members or they have their own health conditions.

The WASPI women have been subjected to systematic discrimination, and the pension fiasco is just the latest example.

It should also be noted that many older women who are in receipt of either a salary or a pension tend to spend that money in their local economies. Therefore, it is not just the women and their immediate families who have lost out and suffered; their wider communities—our communities—have, too.

In its recent report, the PHSO also said that the affected women should be paid up to £2,950 each by way of compensation for the hardship that they have faced because the UK Government had mishandled changes to the pension age and the maladministration had left many of them facing hardship. WASPI women and probably many of us in the chamber think that the level of compensation that has been suggested is, to quote a WASPI woman,

“a slap in the face”.

It is appalling that the DWP, which was responsible for the maladministration, has said that it will not pay out even that measly amount. As Linda Carmichael, who is co-chair of WASPI Scotland, has said,

“an apology doesn’t pay the bills.”

After the publication of the PHSO report, another WASPI campaigner, Lorraine Rae, said:

“We are pleased that, after a long wait, we have been vindicated and have achieved a moral victory. But we must now also be compensated financially for the losses we suffered … We now require compensation without a protracted period of debate and stalling, during which many more Waspi women will die before receiving what they are due.”

I pay special tribute to Linda Carmichael and Lorraine Rae for their tireless work in Aberdeen and, indeed, to all the phenomenal WASPI women campaigners across Scotland. I know that they will not let up in their fight for fair and fast compensation. We should all be able to stand in solidarity with the WASPI women—our mothers, sisters, carers, neighbours and friends—in their fight for justice.

In closing, I am pleased to reaffirm my and the Scottish Greens’ unwavering support for the WASPI campaign. We believe that the WASPI women should have fair and fast compensation, and we urge the UK Government to act quickly to prevent any more damage to WASPI women.

We have agreement on the PHSO report, but I consider the element that the Conservative amendment would remove—the need for fuller and fairer compensation—to be a vital and intrinsic aspect of the WASPI campaign, and it is one that Scottish Greens support, so we should retain that element.

I agree with the principle and the sentiment of the Labour amendment and with the detail of most of it. Greens have long supported and called for a clear system of notifications about future pension changes. We have always supported the pension triple lock, and I am glad to have the opportunity to put that on the record again today. However, we cannot endorse what is clearly part of the Labour general election campaign machine, so we will abstain on the Labour amendment at decision time.

I thank the Scottish Government for bringing forward the debate, and I thank colleagues across the chamber for their contributions. However, most of all, I thank the WASPI women for their tireless fight for fair and fast compensation—for justice. While we have been here this afternoon, seven WASPI women might have died without that justice. We should act together for them, and the UK Government definitely must act.

Are we getting it right in the strategy, around not only identifying the most at-risk groups, but understanding how and why they are at risk?

Sam Campbell, you have spoken very clearly about rural inequalities. Are those inequalities being acknowledged and addressed in the strategy and action plans, or are there things that we have missed?

There is that challenge to consider between the targeted approach and the whole-society approach that understands that none of us has just one identity and we all have multiple characteristics. Last week, we talked about other groups that are identified as being at risk, such as asylum seekers, refugees and former prisoners. The stats for former prisoner suicide in the first week post-release say something quite stark about what we need to do in our post-release planning and support. Does how we understand those issues and those at-risk groups all come down to data and therefore tracking through to resource?

Is there also, then, a question about data collection and data sharing? As the first point of contact, are you able to tell the people who need to know that those indicators are present?

Again, there is a connection between being able to focus resources and being able to target groups of people as they transition or through alcohol dependency support or whatever. Is there a data question in that respect?