After the Applause, Fair Pay for Key Workers

That the Parliament commends the contribution of the key workers who have kept essential services and industries going during the COVID-19 outbreak; regrets the low status, recognition and value that it believes had been placed on many of these workers, mostly the women; acknowledges estimates that 294,000 such workers in Scotland are paid less than £10 per hour; supports the campaign, After the Applause, which was launched by GMB Scotland on 30 April 2020; understands that this has already been backed by thousands of key workers and their families; notes that it calls for an immediate £2 per hour increase pay increase for these workers, including those employed in social care, retail, the NHS, food production, refuse services and many other areas where low pay is the perceived "norm" and were risks to health during the current crisis are among the highest; calls on the Scottish Government, local authorities and private sector employers to recognise that a fair pay rise, alongside all possible health and safety protections, is the least that key workers deserve, and acknowledges the call by the STUC for the UK Government to raise the legal minimum wage, for all workers, to £10 per hour.