SNP pledge boost for low-paid Highland staff

THE SNP has pledged to increase the wages of hundreds of lowly paid Highland Council staff including cleaners and care workers, if the party wins power in May.

Up to 300 frontline staff could find their wage packets boosted to at least £7.20 per hour.

The SNP’s group leader on the council Drew Hendry said it was confident the “living wage” could be introduced as soon as possible following the election on 3rd May, after the party published its manifesto this week.

Street cleaners, crèche staff and care workers are among those likely to benefit and Councillor Hendry said it could apply to between 200 to 300 employees.

He said the wage increase would cost the authority extra, although a figure has not yet been calculated, but was confident the move could be funded and would find favour with the public.

The staff are currently paid the national minimum wage, or close to, of £6.08 an hour, although Chancellor George Osborne announced in the Budget this week it would rise by 11 pence.

“It would be an expense but it is something we think is fair,” said Councillor Hendry. “We have asked officials to identify the number of people we believe that could be affected and we believe that we could achieve it pretty much right away once we are in. I think the people of the Highlands would like to see everybody treated fairly and the living wage goes beyond the minimum wage.”

The commitment to a living wage was backed at the SNP’s national conference in Glasgow earlier this month and mirrors previous pledges for Scottish Government and NHS staff.

The party’s Highland manifesto also includes a pledge to intensify efforts to have the council’s mammoth £140 million housing debt wiped out by the UK Government and it would investigate new methods of building new social housing by using materials like timber, which Councillor Hendry claims could cut construction costs by about half.

Councillor Hendry (Aird and Loch Ness) said it would also instruct roads staff to consult with local community councils on priority work to be undertaken and ensure more preventative repairs are carried out.

The SNP leader had promised a “radical” manifesto earlier this year and when asked why it lacked any actual figures and targets for the next council term, Councillor Hendry said that had proven difficult because although the party had done a lot of preparatory work on the manifesto one of the disadvantages of being in opposition was getting access to the details of the authority’s day-to-day running.

It it unlikely the party will win outright control of the council, which is currently run by a coalition of the Independents, Liberal Democrats and Labour, although the SNP is looking to build on its runaway success in the Highlands in the Scottish Parliament elections last year

The party is fielding two candidates in key wards and another rainbow coalition has been tipped to emerge after polling day.

The council’s current budget leader, Lib-Dem David Alston, said his party will also include the living wage it its manifesto to be published next month but described the SNP’s other pledges as a “wish list”.

“There are no commitments to which they can be held to account,” he said the Black Isle councillor. “The SNP don’t take local government seriously, this is not an election about national issues, this is about local issues.”