Picture: John Devlin
Today, BBC Scotland are headlining a story that a Usdaw (who?) union rep says Anas Sarwar’s family business are now paying the living wage. The rep is clearly camera shy. Might the workers be unhappy with the claim?
BBC Scotland attempt to cover up the fact that Sarwar’s wife and kids get dividends and have been for years on the back of low-page workers.
In September 2017, I wrote:
Anas Sarwar is a shareholder in United Wholesale (Scotland) Ltd which is currently advertising jobs at £7.50 an hour rather than the £8.45 ‘real’ living wage and far less than the £10 an hour supported by his UK leader, Jeremy Corbyn and his current Scottish Leader, Kezia Dugdale who said during the election campaign:
‘The truth is our businesses can afford to pay a little more so that workers aren’t paid a poverty wage.’
Scottish Government staff are guaranteed £8.45 an hour and it funds the Scottish Living Wage Accreditation Initiative, which encourages private sector firms and other bodies to pay £8.45 an hour.
Though formerly opposed to Jeremy Corbyn and his policies, Sarwar has recently made clear his full support for him.
From the above report in the Glasgow Times:
According to the 2015 UWS accounts the Sarwar family firm reported £227 million in turnover and made a post-tax profit of £1.7m. The company was worth around £11.6m in 2015, which means Sarwar’s stake was valued at nearly £2.5m at the time. He is not an UWS director.
How long has this been going on?
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Yep and the BBC in the past couple of days have been all over the place with this story.
On Sunday Sarwar was asked if the ‘family’ business was now paying a living wage….he could not give a straight answer i.e. Yes or No…..which then made it quite obvious that the answer was NO they were not !
Then MSM Monitor Twitter account noted that there was a change of headline on their BBC website re this story.
Initially the headline was “Sarwar’s family will have to pay a living wage” ” which was then changed to ‘Sarwar accused of hypocrisy over labour living wage plan” so obviously someone somewhere at the BBC perhaps realised that the initial headline was not quite accurate or rather it did not reflect a truthful position on this story and thus changed it….which for the BBC is a unique action for them to take against a Pro UK political party……but then someone somewhere else thought FFS get back on message i.e. Pro Labour party (protection and promote) message…..and so………
Now today the USDAW headline story on this via BBC Scotland states that “Union says Sarwar’s family firm pays above real living wage”…..which then is quite puzzling as to why on the Sunday show Sarwar , when asked, did not himself then say “Yes my family’s firm does pay the real living wage” or rather say what teh USDAW Rep is saying now as in that “they pay above the real living wage”…..but he Sarwar did not.…so I am sure many people following this story must now be completely confused…..yesterday Sarwar could not say definitely “Yes the living wage is paid by my family” and now today via a Union ‘Rep’ we do have a “Yes the living wage is paid” …………in fact not just Yes living wage is paid but it is apparently being “paid above the real living wage” ……
Some are working very hard on damage limitation here for Labour…..and this story is starting to stink…..#WheeshtForLabour…….well the Horse’s mouth aka Sarwar confirmed yesterday what the truth was in this story….. in not being able to answer this question with a simple YES as in that…… up to yesterday….. Sarwar’s family firm were obviously NOT paying the real living wage…..no ifs ands or buts about it…..or bogus statements now being made via compromised Union reps…..LOL
Of course as you say there is also the “Cover up” on the “the fact that Sarwar’s wife and kids get dividends and have been for years on the back of low-page workers”…not just by the BBC but also via some other media too…..same ones that chomp at the bit for any story that they can (over) promote as a #SNPBAD sensationalised political story…..which in Scotland is every story as everything is politicised by the media here…..when tis the SNP that is…..other parties not so much for obvious reasons that do not need mentioning on an Indy blog…..that’s for sure.
NMRN
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C’mon people ! How can you expect Anas to pay for Private Education for all his weans , Private Health Care for the Family AND fly out , First Class to Pakistan to see grandad , on an MSPs salary ?
If they started paying the workers a Living Wage then his lifestyle would take a big knock and he might have to give up the Scottish ( sic ) Labour Leadership , fighting for Labour Party Values , and concentrate on making more money ! That would be Scotland’s loss , wouldn’t it ?
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Not sure about ‘Labour party VALUES’ because Sarwar’s English HQ’d party and his boss Starmer, twist and turn as much as my cats new toy with a very short battery life. ‘Scotland’s loss’? Nope but if his company paid a real living wage, that would be Scotland’s GAIN. You take money from the people you take money from local and wider communities, a big plus for Scotland.
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It wouldn’t even dent profits or shareholder income to pay a decent wage, particularly in Sarwar’s case as the %age cost of labour v turnover in a cash&carry is peanuts.
Great that Sarwar’s gaffe ended up resolving long-standing union demands within 24 hours, but it does rather highlight his “disconnect” to the firm as total bullshit.
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The minimum wage is £8.60. The national living wage is £11.44 and the “Real” living wage is £12.
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I see the business rag, ‘Insider Daily’ is pushing the BBC story as well. The article ends with ‘Labour accused the SNP of using zero hours contracts’ re people delivering leaflets last year. Usually delivering leaflets is a temporary job so there would be no long term contract, and mostly done by volunteers…
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Torches and pitchforks…
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In the interview he said, “I have no shares in that company.” (UWS). He also admits in the interview, towards the end of the clip, “Not all of the workers are on the living wage.”
Anas Sarwar accused of hypocrisy over Labour living wage plan (bbc.com)
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