Local Labour MSP Iain Gray has responded to Councillor Stuart Currie’s claims on zero hour contracts and East Lothian Council by highlighting the SNP’s inaction on the issue both locally and at a national level.

Mr Gray said:

“I am proud to have spoken out against the use of exploitative zero hour contracts, and stand by every word. As usual Cllr Currie’s histrionics are wide of the mark.  East Lothian Council has in the past used these contracts occasionally and temporarily.  But the current Labour-led administration have instructed officials to end their use, something the previous administration, of which Cllr Currie was a leading light, never did.  In exactly the same way, the current council administration has made sure that every council employee is paid at least the living wage.  That is something else Cllr Currie never got around to in his years in office.

“Not all councils have taken such measures though, which is why I voted in parliament to make it the law that all councils should pay the living wage and avoid exploitative contracts, for their own staff and also those working on council funded contracts.  SNP MSPs were ordered to vote these measures down, and duly did exactly that.  The truth is that the SNP, whether Cllr Currie in East Lothian or his boss in Bute House, are all talk and no action when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable and lowest paid in our communities.”