Welcome to your Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee news for this week. And look at what a week of recess does! It's positively Spring-like today, as this view from our office window confirms. (Do feel free to send us your office views. We may make it a feature in future newsletters!)
We may not have had a meeting last week, but it was pretty busy here. You might have caught some coverage of our Gender Pay Gap inquiry as Committee Members Gordon Lindhurst MSP and Gillian Martin MSP appeared on Good Morning Scotland (from 1h 35), Call Kaye, Woman's Hour (from 14 mins), Reporting Scotland, and STV News. If you missed them, or just want to live it again, have a listen via those links or check out our twitter feed to get a taste of the excitement of the day!
Still on the inquiry, the call for written views will close on 10 March. But from 1-10 March, we're hoping to gather evidence on Twitter, and we'd love it if you got involved. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. Since Twitter only allows 140 characters, we're asking you to take a selfie* answering the question, "Ending the gender pay gap matters because...". The full information, including a toolkit and downloadable template, can be found here and on our website. Please feel free to share this with your contacts or think about including it if you're planning any International Women's Day activities. And from 1 March, tweet or email us your pictures and help inform the work of the Committee.
And now, for something completely different - tomorrow's meeting. First up, from 9:30 we have a panel on Airdrie Savings Bank. We'll be hearing from
- Rod Ashley, Chief Executive, Airdrie Savings Bank;
- Professor Charles Munn;
- Wendy Dunsmore, Regional Officer, Unite the Union.
Following that, from 11:30 we'll have Paul Wheelhouse MSP, the Minister for Business, Innovation and Energy, in to finish our evidence on the draft Climate Change Plan. Papers for the meeting are here, and the Official Report from our last session on 7 February is available here.
As always, get in touch if you have any questions about this newsletter or any of the Committee's work. Until the next instalment, which promises to be a day-before-pancake-Tuesday special, have a good week!
* having just tried to take a selfie while holding a sign, I can confirm it's a tricky manoeuvre. You may wish to involve a friend in this, which, while technically rendering it not a selfie, still fits our requirements.