To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking in response to reports of potential staff redundancies at the Thermo Fisher Scientific site in Paisley. (S6O-03353)

I was concerned to learn of the proposed job losses at the Thermo Fisher Scientific site in Inchinnan. My immediate thoughts are with the employees affected by the announcement, who will undoubtedly be very anxious about their jobs and their futures. I wrote to the company to outline my concerns a number of weeks ago, and I spoke to it directly this morning to discuss the situation and how it might redeploy staff, where possible.

Scottish Enterprise has been engaging with the company, and the Scottish Government is on hand to provide support to staff who face redundancy through our initiative for responding to redundancy situations—partnership action for continuing employment. PACE has already engaged with the company.

I thank the Minister for the work that she has done to support Thermo Fisher staff.

Workers at the site have spoken to me about their concern that the real reason for the potential job losses is offshoring. Thermo Fisher plans to move the jobs overseas to cut costs and maximise profits. Although this Parliament has limited powers over employment, there are steps that the Government can take to drive up conditions for workers. The Scottish Greens delivered a raft of new conditions on the money that the Scottish Government spends, which ensure, for example, that more Scottish workers get paid a real living wage.

Given that Thermo Fisher has received £150 million-worth of contracts from the Government in the past five years, will the Scottish Government apply conditions to future contracts to ensure that companies that receive huge sums of public money keep those jobs here, in Scotland?

I would like to update Mr Greer and the Parliament on some of the things that came out of this morning’s conversation, but first I will address his point about contracts.

Public contracts are awarded to companies in compliance with procurement legislation as well as international agreements such as the World Trade Organization’s agreement on Government procurement. Contract terms and conditions are focused on the delivery of the contract and are proportionate and relevant to the contract’s subject matter. The fact that procurement rules require equal treatment, transparency and proportionality in public procurement processes precludes the exclusion of companies that conduct their businesses lawfully.

In the meeting that I had this morning, I heard that 20 employees have already been redeployed within the company and that a number of the affected employees have already found jobs outwith Thermo Fisher. All the remaining employees have accepted voluntary redundancy packages from the firm. In addition, the firm has made a commitment to prioritise them for current in-house vacancies. It has around 65 vacancies in Inchinnan and around 30 across the United Kingdom, with remote working being allowed in some instances. It has also contracted a training services company to train the affected workers for recruitment.