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More support for sick and unemployed needed.

The Scottish Government has welcomed the significant steps by the UK Government to support workers through the economic crisis sparked by coronavirus and has urged further support for self-employed, unemployed and sick.

The Economy Secretary has also called on big businesses who have laid off staff because of the crisis to reconsider their decisions in light of the new wage support package.

Economy Secretary Fiona Hyslop recently (20 March 2020) said:

“We have made repeated calls this week to the UK Government to provide direct support to businesses to pay people’s wages to keep them in employment, so I welcome the action that they have taken today.

“This will provide the certainty that many businesses need – they will have money to pay people’s wages. As a result they now need to provide that reassurance to their employees that they will still have a job and they will still be paid.

“Those companies who have taken decisions to lay off staff this week must now reconsider their approach and where they can they should halt or reverse their decisions to make people redundant.

“The scale of these measures is unprecedented, but more action will be required to support the self-employed and unemployed who will not see the benefit of these actions. We also need to see action on sick pay to ensure that where people follow the essential health advice, they know they will be supported in doing so.”