NICOLA Sturgeon has stressed she will not “intimidate people back to work” before it is safe – after the UK Government has warned people continuing to log on from home are more “vulnerable” to losing their jobs.
Under Scottish Government rules, people have been told to continue to work from home as the virus continues to be a threat to public health – amid concerns that offices remaining empty will further compound the economic devastation of the crisis.
Boris Johnson is expected to launch a media campaign to encourage people to return to the office south of the Border, amid suggestions from Number 10 that those choosing to continue working from home could be putting themselves at increased risk of losing their jobs.
Ms Sturgeon has warned that she will not “countenance” people being pressured into going back to work in offices.
The row emerges as Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds stressed that people working from home are not “twiddling their thumbs”.
Ms Dodds, who was in Edinburgh yesterday to see first hand the impact of the lockdown on Scotland’s cultural economy has called for an end to Ms Sturgeon “engaging in some kind of a blame game” with Westminster and instead focus on rebuilding the economy.
Speaking at her daily briefing, the First Minister said re-opening offices before it is safe to do so could risk a resurgence of the virus and put the continued re-opening of schools in doubt.
She said: “I will not countenance in Scotland any kind of narrative around this that is seeking to almost intimidate people back to work before, as a country, we have taken a decision that that is safe."
Ms Sturgeon warned that people should not be told they risk being sacked if they do not go back to the office.
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She indicated that “we want to get back to normal as quickly as possible” and stressed that the Scottish Government will work in a “phased way” to support the re-opening of offices that have not yet done so.
She added: “That has to be done in the context of suppressing the virus.
“It’s for other governments to decide their approach - that’s not the approach I’m going to have the Scottish Government take here.”
Campaigns which say those working from home have less job security put “pressure on individual workers that is not fair”, she said.
Labour’s Shadow Chancellor has blasted the war of words from the UK Government – saying it is needlessly putting more pressure on workers during a period of uncertainty.
Ms Dodds said: “When it comes to going back to work, let’s not forget that people who are working from home – they are working, they are not just sitting there twiddling their thumbs.
“We’ve had many, many people in the workplace right throughout this whole pandemic.
“I think some of rhetoric coming from the government now saying we need to go back to work is really forgetting that huge numbers of people have been at work.”
She added: “For those that have been furloughed, huge numbers of them of them are desperate to get back to work as soon as the work is there.”
Ms Dodds said the UK Government was criticising working people “when really they are just trying to do the best thing for them and their family”.
Turning to the situation in Scotland, she warned that the highest rate of unemployment across the UK is north of the Border.
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She added: “We have also seen a number of reports that suggest that the Scottish economy is going to be particularly hard hit because of the impact of the pandemic.
“We really need to have a very focused approach – one that isn’t this one size fits all approach of withdrawing support across all sectors.”
The Shadow Chancellor has welcomed Ms Sturgeon calling on the UK Government to extend the furlough scheme, which expires in October – but has told the First Minister to do more to help Scots struggling financially.
Ms Dodds said her party has been concerned over the Scottish Government not using its devolved powers effectively – pointing to social security.
She said: “They haven’t always taken them up and I do think that is problematic.
“What we really want to see now is the Scottish Government not engaging in some kind of a blame game but instead working with the Westminster government around issues like localised lockdown.”
She added: “Businesses and working people are calling out for clarity about what the plan will be for financial support in particular and we have quite an ad-hoc approach.
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“We need to have a clear plan and we need to have that coordination.”
Labour is pressing for the Scottish Government to work more collaboratively with Westminster, particularly when the furlough scheme runs out – with Ms Dodds calling for a “more flexible system of wage support” and warning “it’s not about whose fault it is, it’s about getting this fixed”.
She added: “We don’t want to see that wage support expire across the whole economy at the same time across every sector – we think that’s very short-sighted. Doing that is just leading to additional waves of unemployment coming through.
“We do need to see more of focus on the sectoral challenges that are being faced right now.”
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