PUB STAFF CALL LAST ORDERS ON LATE SHIFT TRAVEL HELL
Workers press for Holyrood to step in
YOUNG bar workers have pleaded with Scottish Government ministers to use their clout to help pub staff get home safely after late shifts.
The campaigners say hospitality chains should provide taxis for late workers as a condition of getting a licence.
The Safe Home campaigners met Economy Secretary Keith Brown and Employability Minister Jamie Hepburn at Holyrood this week and asked them what they could do to help.
Employment law is dealt with by Westminster but the Scottish Government are responsible for licensing and could change the rules to ensure workers’ welfare.
Young trade union members spoke about their experiences of working late and having to choose between an unsafe walk home or spending as much as two hours of wages on a taxi.
A Glasgow woman told the ministers how she’d been harassed as she finished a late shift in a busy bar and didn’t feel safe as she made her way home.
Brown and Hepburn heard from members of the STUC and Better Than Zero, a trade union group supporting people in low-paid and often insecure work.
After the meeting, STUC deputy general secretary Dave Moxham said: “This is an issue about work-related safety, which employers should have the duty to address. It should not be another burden for workers to bear.”
The Safe Home initiative is the latest strand in wider campaigns to end workplace exploitation, zero-hour contracts and unpaid trial shifts.
Moxham added: “Every day, workers are contacting the Better Than Zero campaign, revealing new cases of unsafe and unfair work practices like this and seeking advice.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said the meeting was an excellent opportunity to meet workers and send out a “strong message” against exploitation.
The spokesman added: “We are encouraging employers to offer fairer flexible contracts that offer job security and we continue to press the UK Government for more devolved powers so we can better protect workers’ rights and wellbeing.”