Labour spokesperson Mark Griffin and STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer.
By Bill Heaney
The Scottish Parliament is set to debate Mark Griffin MSP’s Employment Injuries Advisory Council (SEIAC) Bill today (Thursday 18th April).
The Bill aims to set up a new council of experts to help design and deliver the new employment injury benefit. Under the plans, this council would be tasked with recommending to the Scottish Government which occupations and conditions the new injury benefit should cover.
Responsibility for employment injury benefit has been devolved to Scotland, however these powers have not yet been used by the Scottish Government.
Only 7% of successful applications to the current UK-run industrial injuries system come from women.
Scottish Labour MSP Mark Griffin said: “Every worker who has lost their livelihood or suffered injury in the workplace deserves justice, but far too many are being failed by an outdated system that only serves the male-dominated industrial injuries of the past.
“From the frontline workers now struggling with long covid, to firefighters diagnosed with cancer and ex-professional footballers suffering from dementia, there are still industrial diseases and injuries going unrecognised.
“In his speech to the STUC congress this week the First Minister talked of values in the interests of working people. These warm words will mean nothing unless he acts now to build a fairer, more equal industrial injuries system in Scotland.
“A failure now would be turning our backs on those key workers who need this reformed system most.
“The SNP-Green government must back this bill, use its new powers, and deliver a council that puts workers’ voices at the heart of the new benefit.”
STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said: “The Scottish Government has a unique opportunity to build a welfare system fit for the 21st century with the voices of workers at its heart.
“They must not let them down. By rejecting Mark Griffin’s Bill, they would be sending out the message that workers injured at their work and now in need of assistance from the state can be discarded or ignored.”
Phyllis Clark, Director of the Charity Action on Asbestos, said: “Time is already running out for those afflicted by asbestos-related illness and disease today. There is no time for further delay from the Scottish Government.
“We need a system in Scotland that is fit for purpose and equipped to deal with all future cases of asbestos-related illness and disease.”
John McKenzie, Scottish Regional Secretary of the Fire Brigade’s Union, said: “Time is running out for Scotland’s firefighters. They need the Scottish Government to act, and act now.
“They need a system that can respond quickly in recognising work related illness and disease in the modern workplace.
“Any more delays are inexcusable; the outdated Westminster benefit continues to ignore firefighters becoming ill as a result of workplace exposures; the Scottish Government must seize the opportunity to fix that in Scotland using the new statutory powers.”