The STUC will press the Scottish Government
to set up and fund an STUC administered
vulnerable workers’ project as part
of a wide ranging strategy to end the
exploitation of young vulnerable workers
in the fast food and related sectors.
Delegates condemned discriminatory practices
which adversely affect all low paid, unorganised
workers, but which particularly impact
on young workers. The STUC will explore
new ways of reaching and supporting young
workers and will lobby the Scottish Government
to ensure it plays its part.
Supporting the composite, Ryan Boyle,
UNISON young member told delegates that
the coalition’s statements that
we are on the road to recovery couldn’t
be further from the truth.
“Austerity has been a failure in
every sense of the word,” slammed
Ryan adding that young workers have taken
some of the worst brunt, with research
showing that average wages for those in
their 20s now a fifth lower than in 2008/9
with 10% fewer young people aged between
20 and 24 in work over the same period.
He also condemned the deregulation and
casualisation of the labour market, which
has seriously impacted on young people
and has contributed to the fall in wages.
“In the UK specifically, under
25s are now three times more likely to
be unemployed than the rest of the population.
This drives more and more young people
into using foodbanks, and into the claws
of unscrupulous payday lenders,”
added Ryan, supporting the call for a
campaign against the exploitation of young
workers and the promotion of credit unions
as an alternative to pay day lenders.
