Extract from Scotland
Questions: Support for Businesses: Scotland
(Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (SNP): We are still
waiting on the promised aviation sectoral support. Indeed, far from
support, in my Adjournment debate the Minister essentially said
that workers should be grateful that
Rolls-Royceoffered voluntary redundancy. Moreover,
the Government have not acted to stop companies such as Menzies
Aviation and Centrica following the deplorable fire-and-rehire
tactics employed by British Airways, which are now being enforced.
Will he tell the House whether he thinks it fair that an employer
can force an employer on to reduced terms and conditions or face
redundancy? Why is that illegal in so many European countries?
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy
and Industrial Strategy (): We are in constant conversation with
Rolls-Royce and other employers, quite rightly.
The sector will be impacted for between three and five years. It
is right that companies should be able to right-size their
businesses and, as the Secretary of State referred to, have a
constructive dialogue with their employees about how they arrive
at that right size. The Government’s position is to support the
industry with more than £8.5 billion of support through the covid
pandemic.
Petition: Future of the
Aviation and Aerospace Industry
(Glasgow North) (SNP)
British Airways staff have been renowned for decades for their
commitment to first-class customer service, and long before
lockdown and furlough, BA was in receipt of public funding, not
least through the air fares of generations of Members of
Parliament, peers, and Ministers from Scotland and elsewhere in
the UK travelling to this place. So to say that my constituents
and I are disappointed at BA’s proposals for a fire and rehire
policy towards its staff is a significant understatement. BA must
listen and this Government must act.
The petition states:
The petition of residents of Glasgow North,
Declares that job losses at British Airways,
Rolls-Royce and across the aviation and
aerospace industry will be a devastating blow to employees of
these firms and will cause major economic damage to the whole of
the UK; supports the early intervention by the Scottish
Government in removing the business rates liability for one year
and urges the UK Government to follow suit.
The petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges
the Government to secure a sustainable future for the aviation
industry, to ensure that urgent discussions take place between
relevant ministers and these firms to protect the maximum number
of jobs, and to ensure that workers play a full role in the
decisions being taken about this industry.
And the petitioners remain, etc.
