LABOUR WILL OFFER ZERO HOURS STAFF A FAIR DEAL

2nd March 2015

John Erskine, Scottish Labour candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, has stated his and Scottish Labour's commitment to ending the abuse of zero hour contracts.

This comes after figures released Wednesday (25 February) by the Office of National Statistics that show that from October 2014 to December there were 60,000 workers in Scotland on zero-hour contract in their main jobs. For the UK as a whole the figure was 697,000. This is 100,000 rises from this time last year. Altogether there is 1.8 million workers in Britain on zero hour contracts. A zero hour contact is one in which the employee is not guaranteed any working hours by their employers.

Last week, the Caithness Trade Union Congress called for more respect for local workers as zero hour contracts were on the rise in Caithness.

John Erskine said:"The rise in zero-hour contracts in our area as voiced by the local TUC is a real concern. The local rise and the rise across Scotland demonstrates that despite what this current Liberal Democrat/Tory coalition claims, this so called economic recovery is a hollow one. Ordinary people are not benefiting. Too many people are getting jobs with no guaranteed hours thus no guaranteed wages. This means that despite the fact that they technically have jobs, local people are not feeling the benefits of work. Labour will tackle this problem by banning exploitative zero hour contracts. Real jobs should mean real hours."

"However, we will not stop at ending this abuse of these contacts. We will improve workers' rights by increasing the minimum wage, doubling paternity leave and raising the pay that goes with it. We also committed to holding a full enquiry into blacklisting which has hurt too many families. Measures like these will help make our area and Scotland as whole a fairer and more equal place."