Fair wage campaign

TEN Shetland councillors have signed up to the Scottish Youth Parliament’s One Fair Wage campaign this week.

The campaign seeks to increase the minimum wage to £7.20 and apply it to everyone regardless of age, unlike the current minimum wage which pays young people less.

This week SIC leader Gary Robinson, convener Malcolm Bell, Gary Cleaver, Vaila Wishart, Billy Fox, George Smith, Mark Burgess, Drew Ratter, Cecil Smith and Peter Campbell signed up.

Local MSYP Nicole Mouat said she would be approaching more councillors and local businesses to gain their support.

“It is a huge issue for young people in particular, as they move away from home and try to stand on their own two feet.  A living wage is a step towards them achieving this,” she said.

Gary Robinson said the SIC was the first of Scotland’s 32 local authorities to sign up to the Fair Living Wage scheme when the single status deal was signed in 2009.

“Only last week I attended a meeting where I learned that half of Scotland’s local authorities have either joined or met the terms of the scheme, and all 32 have plans to do so,” he said.

“I would encourage other businesses and organisations to follow suit.”

Last week the Scottish Green Party became the first political party to support the One Fair Wage campaign at its conference in Glasgow.

Green MSP Alison Johnstone said: “The idea that someone can be paid less than the bare minimum needed to live on is obscene.

“As a party committed to equality we object to a young person being paid less than an older colleague simply because of their youth.”