SCOTLAND’S largest trade union body launched its manifesto for workers today, challenging Holyrood candidates to back its plan to “deliver dignity in work.”

Less than six weeks before the country goes to the polls, the STUC set out its agenda for the next Scottish Parliament, with demands ranging from fair work and taxation to energy and public services.

Building on last October’s Scotland Demands Better rally, the Workers Demanding Better manifesto opens with a rejection of the SNP government’s plan to axe 11,000 jobs to plug a budget gap projected to grow to £4.7 billion by 2029-30, instead calling for an overhaul of the tax system to rebuild public services.

The manifesto argues for the introduction of a wealth tax and replacement of council tax with a proportionate property tax of 0.7 per cent, which could boost the public finances by as much as £783 million a year, even after rebates have been issued to low-income occupiers of high-value properties.

The STUC also calls for a full audit of outsourcing in Scotland as the first step in an insourcing plan that would pull the plug on the £2-3bn in profits that unions estimate are creamed off from public services every year.

General secretary Roz Foyer said: “Our manifesto is a clear plan to deliver dignity in work, revitalise our public services and rebuild our nation’s critical infrastructure.

“For too long have politicians, especially those now seeking our votes, been allowed to ride roughshod over the expressed will of Scotland’s workers.

“Many in our communities are desperately seeking positive change that, all too often, doesn’t materialise after the ballots have been counted.”

An expansion of sectoral collective bargaining is also high on the STUC agenda, as well as equity stakes in national infrastructure projects, making funding for manufacturing conditional on fair work terms and conditions and ditching profiteering rolling-stock companies from ScotRail in favour of delivering new rolling stock through green bonds.

“From high-quality jobs to an economy that prioritises the needs of workers, our manifesto leads the way in showing the politicians exactly how they can support workers across the country”, said Ms Foyer.

“There can be no half-measures.

“People are under suffocating pressure from the cost-of-living crisis that, without urgent political intervention and support, will drive workers further from the political process and present an open goal to those in our communities intent on dividing working-class people.”