Business for Scotland welcomes today’s announcement of a business partnership pledge by the Scottish Government.
Business for Scotland’s own set of Goals and Objectives are a close match with the the Scottish Government’s Business Pledge and will therefore be warmly welcomed by our membership, which is now approaching 4,000 Scottish SMEs.
In particular, Business for Scotland’s goals to encourage The Living Wage; investment in youth; a movement towards a balanced workforce (including gender equality); the encouragement of investment in innovation and improved productivity;sustainability; internationalisation and prompt payment for SMEs have all been picked up on in the Scottish Government’s business pledge.
We also welcome the commitment to workforce engagement and the strongly worded caveats on the use of zero hours contracts. Zero hours contracts in some circumstances can be mutually beneficial for both workers and employers but they have become overused and it is now right to outlaw exploitative and exclusive contracts.
Rob Aberdein – newly elected Chairman of Business for Scotland – commented that:
“This collaboration from the Scottish Government represents a refreshing and enlightened approach to creating prosperity for Scotland through business growth and responsible, sustainable and fair business practices”.
“We find the similarity to Business for Scotland’s core values to be flattering and combined with our steadily growing membership, we can see that our business agenda and vision is getting through”.
However the new majority Conservative Government’s Queen’s Speech tomorrow on more powers for Scotland is expected to exclude vital business powers such as control over corporation tax and control over crucial employment laws, including the ability to set the minimum wage. Full control over these extremely important economic levers will allow the Scottish Government to use an ‘enhanced set’ of powers to incentivise Scottish businesses to adopt the right behaviours”.
A full set of Business for Scotland Goals and Values can be found on our website
These values and goals were arrived at after consultation with our membership October and November 2014 and agreed at our AGM in December 2014.
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