Paid time off to give blood?

A Labour MSP wants to introduce paid leave to donate blood during work hours.

At the moment theres no requirement on employers to give workers any time off to give blood but currently the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service is calling for 190 thousand additional donors.

Health representative for the party Rhoda Grant who's calling for the change says it would give people an incentive to donate and could help push stocks up well into the future.

However there is opposition to the idea from the head of policy at the Scottish Chambers of Commerce who says, "Giving blood is certainly a good thing to do and we would encourage employers to be as fair as possible with staff, but I don't think it's an area where political parties should get involved. There's enough employment legislation out there.''