Murphy’s fair pay stance is ‘hypocritical’ says SNP candidate

Cash-strapped North Lanarkshire Council paid out around £70 million to 4000 workers last month after they took legal action to claw back money they were entitled to.

Many of the claimants were low-paid cooks, cleaners, home carers and dinner ladies and the council agreed the settlement with their legal representatives.

Neil Gray, the SNP Airdrie and Shotts candidate – who is going up against Labour’s Pamela Nash in the General Election – accused Scottish party leader Jim Murphy of “hypocrisy” over his constant calls for fair wages and vows to ban zero-hours contracts, claiming many of his own councils are exploiting their workers with casual contracts.

Gray, 29, said: “Labour is making a big play about ending zero-hours contracts and having fair pay for public sector workers in this General Election, but North Lanarkshire Council dragged hundreds of low-paid female workers’ equal pay claims through the courts for years and have only just settled.

“We don’t know how much the legal fees have been, we’ve put in an FOI [Freedom of Information law request] asking for a breakdown of these fees and I call on the council to publish these figures, because we are talking about taxpayers’ money here.

“It is a height of hypocrisy for Jim Murphy to be calling for fair pay for workers and also he is constantly going on about zero-hours contracts when there are a number of workers within North Lanarkshire Council, particularly in the catering staff, who are on zero-hour contracts.

“Jim Murphy has a cheek to be demanding and saying that Labour is going to end zero hours contracts and demand fair pay for public sector workers when his own councils are dragging equal pay claims through the courts for years, racking up goodness knows how much in legal bills for the taxpayer and his own councils continue to employ people on zero-hours contracts.”

Orkney-born Gray, who is married and has an eight-month-old daughter, Isla, used to work as a BBC Radio Orkney reporter, producer and presenter. He said he feels optimistic about his chances of winning the seat after the response from the public during his months of canvassing.

He said: “I have been working non-stop on this campaign. We have chapped thousands of doors, we have made hundreds if not thousands of telephone calls, we have delivered thousands of leaflets.

“The number of people coming into our campaign shop has been phenomenal. The response from the public has been fantastic.

“I think we have a good chance of winning but it is going to take a lot of work in the next four weeks. If people are telling the Labour Party what they are telling us they must be really worried.

“One of the really striking things about this election is that the people who are telling us they are voting SNP are absolutely solid and will walk over hot coals to come out and vote on May 7, whereas those who say they are going to vote Labour are very soft, very few are certain and they are keen to hear what we have to say. Pamela Nash has been their MP for five years and still a lot of people don’t know who she is, which tells its own story.”

North Lanarkshire Council refused to reveal how much public money has been spent on legal fees defending the major equal pay claim or confirm the payout, insisting all details were subject to a confidentiality agreement.

A spokesman said: “The settlement between all the parties is subject to a confidentiality agreement [and] we cannot disclose any details of that settlement.

“A zero-hours contract is where an employee is not guaranteed any hours but is eligible under the terms of the contract only to work for the employing organisation. We have none.

“What we do have is a number of people – mostly in our arms-length bodies – who work on a casual basis – banqueting staff at functions in the concert hall, seasonal lifeguards in pools. These are not zero-hours contracts.”