FIRST MINISTER Nicola Sturgeon paid tribute to the “invaluable” role of trade unions in standing up for workers during the pandemic as she addressed the Scottish TUC yesterday.

Ms Sturgeon said government decisions through successive Covid waves had been influenced by regular consultation with the STUC general council.

“The pandemic exacerbated many of the deep inequalities in our society. We know your experience of the pandemic differed enormously based on your income, job security and housing situation,” she said.

She slammed the British government over its failure to act on the cost-of-living crisis and said the Scottish government was doing all it could to address it, including by increasing social security payments by 6 per cent and doubling the Scottish child payment to £20 a week, with a rise to £25 planned.

“Given the Scottish government’s limited powers, no package is going to be perfect,” she said.

Earlier congress had endorsed motions condemning the British government’s Subsidy Control Bill, which Unison delegate Tom Morrison said “will give the Westminster government the final say on any action that disrupts commercial market forces,” undermining Scotland’s powers of public-sector intervention under the Scotland Act 1998.

“The Internal Market Act sets out rules that allow Westminster to override attempts by local councils such as North Ayrshire to use its power to purchase services locally,” he pointed out.

Congress also passed a composite motion slamming Ms Sturgeon’s government’s support for “green freeports,” which it described as “onshore tax havens.

“No evidence has been presented as to how ‘fair work’ will be enforced, criminality prevented, or the risks of job displacement or uneven development managed,” the motion charged.