Safer betting shops

23.03.09 - John Park MSP

I have spent the best part of the last two years working with the trade union Community highlighting some of the very real abuse being faced by workers in betting shops across the UK.

These are workers who could potentially face the full monty of abuse from verbal, to physical, spitting to sawn-off shotguns. I've heard stories about workers emptying games machines of thousands of pounds - on their own - and being threatened with disciplinary action if they locked the bookmakers shop for protection while carrying out the task.

A campaign to highlight the Community campaign in the Scottish Parliament attracted huge cross party support and hopefully played a part in focussing the industry on the importance of tackling this problem.

The hands-on approach from the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, James Purnell, who invited unions, local authorities and business representatives to a round table meeting in November has led to greater and more constructive dialogue from all sides of industry. A small working group was developed from this first meeting to look at how guidelines could be developed - initially in London - to help the industry deal with the issues more effectively. This group reported back to the Secretary of State this week and it was agreed in principle that a stakeholder forum including Community and the ABB would be set up to find ways of improving betting shop safety.

When I first got involved in the campaign I detected a natural resistance from employers to engage with the union because they felt the campaign was about trade union recognition rather than health and safety. These two issues have to be separated because there is a difference between recognising the legitimacy of the union to raise these issues and union recognition in terms of collective bargaining.

It's early days but if anyone had suggested a year ago that all sides of the industry would have agreed a way of working together I would have been very sceptical. Community are now at the table with industry and that can only be positive for workers in the sector and in my view, improve safety. There are so many lessons to learnt from other sectors - particularly transport - where joint working has been very effective.

Some of the language used by the industry about Community did concern me and throws up a wider question of how trade unions can be viewed in this country. Whereas we believe the trade unions are a legitimate and integral part of our democracy - many still view them not as social partners - but as an inconvenience. For me that is a sharp reminder of what life would be like under a Conservative Government - where that view would be promoted, tolerated and very popular with some

And that is why I believe we have to make a really strong case to directly to trade union members as we approach the general election. If anyone thinks that life under a Tory Government will somehow be better for trade union members, they are wrong.

 

John Park is a Member of the Scottish Parliament and was elected as a regional list member for Mid Scotland and Fife in 2007. He is Shadow Minister for Economy and Skills. He has been an active trade unionist and a member of Unite the Union since he started working in 1989 and a Labour Party member for the majority of his working life.

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