Patrick Harvie's speech to the 2020 Scottish Greens conference, in full

The Scottish Greens are working for Scotland.

And over the coming days, at our final Autumn conference before the next election, you will hear how this hard work by the Greens in Holyrood in recent years has had a profound and positive impact across Scotland.

Throughout this Parliament the Scottish Greens have fought for a better deal for Scotland’s workers.

We’ve made the income tax system fairer so that those on lower wages pay less whilst the rich pay more.

We secured over £100m for a pay rise for teachers.

READ MORE: 'Scotland should have four-day working week': Greens call for workers' New Deal

And we secured half a billion in additional funding for local government to spend on key services like education and social care.

When the pandemic struck back in March it was key workers up who stepped up and kept this country going.

Day in, day out you went to work to keep everyone safe. To save lives. And now, as the second wave of the virus continues to grow, key workers across Scotland are once again keeping our country running and saving lives.

So to all those supermarket workers, teachers and school staff, carers, nurses and doctors, delivery drivers, refuse collectors, and everyone else who is working for Scotland as we go through this terrible pandemic together, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

But we all know that saying thank you is not enough.

Clapping is not enough.

Because whilst key workers face low pay, zero-hour contracts, stressful working conditions and the ever-present risk of contracting COVID at work, the rich have stayed safe, and got richer.

In fact, billionaires across the UK saw their personal wealth grow by over £25 billion over the first lockdown.

This is not a coincidence. Successive UK and Scottish governments have shared an ideological belief in the pursuit of endless economic growth and the idea that wealth trickles down from the top. In fact, this destructive and toxic belief continues to be at the heart of the Tory and SNP visions for our economy, and is shared by both Labour and the LibDems.

And over decades of government led by these parties this ideology has brought about the dismantling of protections for workers, squeezed trade unions to the margins of decision-making and left millions stuck in poverty and precarious work.

No more. Now is the time for change.

As Scotland rebuilds from the pandemic, and as we look to our last chance to avoid a climate catastrophe, we face an unprecedented opportunity to build a new economy for Scotland that protects the planet and serves the people. Rather than an economy we all serve to enrich the few at the cost of environmental destruction.

We need to build the structures and policies that help workers and their families to prosper. These are measures that not only help ensure workers get their fair share, but also help to strengthen the economy and ensure skilled and high quality jobs are created and retained in Scotland.

There are many good employers out there who respect their workers and work collaboratively with them, but they are put at a disadvantage in our current economy. Those good employers are undercut by the bad, by bosses who seek to enrich themselves by pushing down wages and working conditions. This isn’t just a fact of capitalism, it’s the result of Government dismantling protections and permitting, even encouraging, exploitation.

New protections for workers and a greater role for unions isn’t just good for workers and good employers, it’s good for our economy too. Because when workers are paid a greater share, the wealth we all generate isn’t left sitting idly in tax havens or squandered on super yachts; it circulates in the real economy. More taxes are raised, helping to fund public services, and more cash is spent locally – in the shops, cafes, and restaurants that we need to see survive the current crisis. This is the principle behind the Scottish Green New Deal that we have proposed.

And a key pillar to this is a New Deal for Scotland’s workers.

A deal that reverses the erosion of rights, that restores wages and the dignity of work, that ends zero-hour contracts and stops the likes of Uber, Deliveroo and the rest from dodging their basic responsibilities to employees by pretending their workers are self-employed.

A deal that puts workers and unions centre stage in driving a transition to a zero-carbon economy and creating quality, unionised and well paid green jobs.

Today we have published a series of proposals for the UK and the Scottish Governments to implement these urgently needed changes. But we know these changes face barriers at Westminster in particular with the Conservatives in charge and Labour once again reverting to centrism, which is why we need these powers either devolved to Scotland or Scotland to be independent so we can make these decisions ourselves.

Let me tell you a little bit about what this New Deal for Scotland’s workers would look like.

Firstly, we want to see strong trade unions and collective bargaining structures established to deliver better, fairer pay, improve working conditions and safeguard workers against unfair employment practices.

We need to see an end to the restrictive trade union laws introduced by the Tories over decades, and left in place by Labour; laws that limit the reach of unions, undermine their role in the economy, and make it harder for them to take the option, when they need it, of industrial action. The role of unions, and their right to organise, must be restored. And we need to see collective bargaining embraced and promoted once again by establishing a framework for trade unions and employers to meet and reach agreement.

This is particularly urgent in sectors that are not traditionally well represented, particularly those parts of the economy where low pay is endemic and where women form a large part of the workforce, such as care workers.

As well as actively promoting collective bargaining in these areas, the Government needs to roll up its sleeves and help to establish the frameworks necessary for agreements to be reached, including reintroducing Wage Councils in areas where there are still barriers to agreement.

Secondly, we want to see an end to low pay and in-work poverty. To those who say we can’t afford this, I say it’s the current trend of making the rich ever-richer that we can’t afford. The gap between top earners and workers is now so high that in many large companies it would take just a 3% reduction in senior pay to fund a £2000 pay rise for the bottom 25%.

We can start ending the scourge of low pay by mandating a real living wage of at least £10 an hour and aggressively pursuing wage theft, which allows UK employers to withhold £2.7 billion every year in unpaid wages.

We can also take action against precarious work by prohibiting zero-hours contracts and bogus self-employment that has become rife in the gig economy, where we’ve seen jobs that would have previously been on secure contracts instead use irregular working arrangements to evade the fair costs and responsibilities that come with being an employer.

We stand with workers like the Better than Zero campaign and the drivers who have taken Uber to court to ensure their basic workers’ rights. But it really should not be left to workers on precarious contracts to fight David & Goliath court battles against billionaire companies. The state should ensure those rights.

And as for the UK’s meagre provision for Statutory Sick Pay, it’s an utter disgrace; at £98.50 a week, it’s one of the lowest in Europe. And that’s only if you’re eligible for it.

The Scottish Greens believe that Statutory Sick Pay should be available from day one, accessible to the self-employed, and increased to at least the level of the living wage. That would currently mean £325 a week – enough to see people through their illness rather than the punishment pay that sick workers are given right now.

Then there’s the case for a move to a four day week. The evidence shows time and time again that reducing working hours whilst maintaining pay increases productivity and wellbeing. It’s a win-win for workers and employers, and the only barrier to delivering it is habit, and in many workplaces a culture of presenteeism. For many, COVID is already forcing them to question this culture. Now is the time for us to deliver the change.

And if you’re in any doubt, just look to the trailblazers who are already doing it. Pursuit Marketing in my home city of Glasgow, for example, introduced a 4-day week back in 2016 and they report that productivity has increased by a third whilst morale and enthusiasm has improved. This is part of a global shift about work-life balance. Companies all over the world have trialled 4 day working weeks and found productivity gains from better morale and fewer sick days have more than offset the loss of a working day.

But we can’t simply rely on companies voluntarily doing the right thing and putting their workers first. Particularly when their very structure is stacked towards the immediate interests of shareholders rather than the long-term sustainability of businesses and the welfare of workers. This must change. We want to see corporate governance law putting shareholder interest secondary to long-term sustainability, trade union representation on company boards and an expansion of workplace democracy so that workers have a say.

The Scottish Government can and should play a more proactive role here too, directing enterprise agencies to ensure their funds are supporting this transition to long-termism.

Which brings me to what more the Scottish Government could do to empower workers and unions.

There is no doubt that we could do more in Scotland with our £11bn of public procurement every year. We need to be innovative and to push the boundaries so that we can go beyond encouragement, and require trade union recognition, no use of tax havens or precarious employment practices, and fair pay.

Crown Estate Scotland, which owns land and the seabed for the Scottish people, can place similar requirements on those who profit from its assets, and they can and must require these companies to source a minimum amount of their supply chains from within Scotland so that we can create more quality Green jobs. We can take action where the Scottish and UK Governments have consistently fallen short to ensure companies like BiFab are getting the work they need to stabilise and grow.

And there’s no reason why the Scottish Government cannot support sectoral bargaining frameworks in areas linked to the public sector, as it has in the further education sector. Social care and early learning and childcare should be a priority, as these are sectors where low pay is endemic and the workforce are primarily women. The overtures the Scottish Government has already made here have been slow and piecemeal. We need bolder action and proactive work by the Government to set up those structures.

And finally, we need an industrial strategy for Scotland. We know that Government does not have all the answers. Working in partnership: the Scottish Government, employers, unions, universities and scientists, and local government - we all need to come together and rise to the challenge of transitioning to a post-oil, zero-carbon economy and turn rhetoric about green industries and jobs into a reality. Because the opportunities are there, but as we have seen all too painfully this week, without urgent action and a long-term industrial strategy for Scotland they will be missed and those jobs that successive Scottish and UK Governments have promised will not materialise.

But let me be very clear: we can make progress by using the powers available to us in Scotland with more ambition than the SNP have shown, but there are limits. So many vital powers to improve pay and working conditions, and to eradicate inequality lie with the Tories in Westminster, not us.

The STUC understand this, and made it clear this month when they said that the UK Government’s Internal Market Bill, which threatens to sweep away devolved powers and impose a race-to-the-bottom, deregulation agenda, makes the case for a second independence referendum unanswerable.

Many traditional Labour voters understand it too, and are shifting steadily toward support for independence, but they see their party which blocked the devolution of employment law now scrapping with the Tories for a shrinking share of a declining anti-independence vote.

The vision of how Scotland can be different is the reason Scottish Greens support independence. We believe that we here in Scotland should get to decide whether to accept poverty pay or give everyone their fair share, whether to repress the Unions or welcome them round the decision-making table, and whether to allow sick workers to be punished with poverty or ensure they are paid enough to support them through their illness.

With independence can we build a genuinely fair and Green Scotland.

Let me finish with one clear message: The Scottish Greens are the party for workers.

Because its only the Scottish Greens who are committed to changing the system. To redressing the imbalance of power between employers and workers. And to giving unions a greater role in workplaces and decision-making.

And just look at what’s happened this year.

When the pandemic struck Scotland came together. And I’m proud of the role we Greens have played in Parliament, working for Scotland, campaigning to protect tenants from evictions and support those facing hardship, to protect teachers and school staff from being put at risk at work, and to provide carers and frontline NHS staff with the testing service they are demanding.

Scottish Labour, in contrast, have expended their energy pursuing their political rivalries once again. After 4 years of this parliament they have little to show for it apart from scars from their endless infighting.

And while Nicola Sturgeon will give Ted talks about creating a wellbeing economy, she has never come close to saying what that really means, and the SNP isn’t standing up to the vested interests, challenging the decades-long dominance of a failed free market economy, and taking the action that’s needed to deliver a different vision.

The fact is: if you don’t just believe in a fairer and greener Scotland, you actually want to make it happen, then the Scottish greens are the party for you.