SNP GUILTY OF DOUBLE STANDARDS
Labour: Ministers are hiding behind statistics
First Minister states that zero hours contracts ‘demean and exploit’ workers But Scottish Government describe them as ‘positive destination’ for school leavers
THE SNP Government describe zero hours contract jobs as “positive” for school leavers despite the First Minister saying the contracts “demean and exploit” workers, it emerged yesterday.
Labour called for an overhaul of how school leavers’ progress and the success of the education system is assessed, pointing out Nicola Sturgeon’s party count the controversial contracts as a “positive destination” for young people.
Labour’s education spokesman Iain Gray said it means the SNP regard “almost any job, no matter how temporary or insecure, as a success”.
The statistics showed that in 2015-16, 91.4 per cent of school leavers went on to a “positive destination”, such as university, college, training or work, down from 92 per cent in 2014-15.
In the most affluent areas, 96.2 per cent of school leavers achieved this, compared to 85 per cent in the most deprived communities.
Gray said: “SNP ministers have hidden behind ‘positive destination’ statistics.
“There’s nothing positive about the rise in zero hours contracts, but that’s how they are classified by the SNP.
“We can’t start to improve outcomes until we know what a successful transition from education to employment is. The Scottish Government’s current criteria is no longer fit for purpose.
“If SNP ministers are serious about improving life chances for the next generation, they have to get serious about facing up to how well or badly, their policies are working. It’s time for a major overhaul.
“SNP ministers have been too distracted to focus on the day job so Labour is doing their job for them and putting forward a proposal that would transform the way we measure success.”
Labour want to return to a system used by the previous Scottish Executive which tracked youngsters’ progress over several years.
They also want to ensure public contracts are not awarded to companies who carry out blacklisting, put workers on zero hours contracts or fail to pay the living wage.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The gap between the most and least deprived school leavers going into positive followup destinations has almost halved since 2009-10. Far from being bad news, this is a measure of the significant progress we have made.
“It comes against a background of youth unemployment being among the lowest in Europe, significantly below the rest of the UK.
“We are committed to creating a culture of fair work throughout all workplaces in Scotland which discourages the use of exploitative zero-hours contracts and other non-standard types of employment that offer workers little or no job security.”