SNP and Labour clash over workers’ rights
The election campaign in Scotland has intensified this Friday lunchtime with the Scottish Secretary branding the Scottish National Party (SNP) “two faced”.
Alistair Darling, responding to the SNP’s promise that it would work to implement a 48 hour working week in Scotland if elected, accused them of “bare faced hypocrisy.”
SNP’s health spokesperson, Shona Robison, today backed the launch of the party’s “workers’ manifesto” in which the SNP pledge to implement the Working Time directive in full.
Speaking at the launch Ian Hudghton MEP said: “The UK government is notorious for opting out of, or delaying, EU legislation to protect workers’ rights. The Tories did it by opting out of the Social Chapter and Labour hasn’t been much better.
“Recently Labour and the Tories even joined forces to prevent legal action from being taken against the UK government for the widespread and systematic abuse of the 48 hour working time opt out negotiated by the government.
“While SNP members supported the legal action clause in a bid to defend workers from exploitation, British Labour and Tory MEPs conspired to let unscrupulous employers off the hook.
“The SNP will continue to work hard to stand up for Scottish workers and we will continue to work hard to ensure that Scottish workers have the
same rights as their European counterparts. We will continue to campaign for and seek the full implementation of a 48 hour maximum working week.”
However, the Labour Party claim that “only two nights ago the same Shona Robison appeared on BBC TV attacking the Working Time directive and blaming it for so-called funding problems in the NHS.
“Then she said, ‘well I think the European Working Time directive has to be looked at again in terms of the unintended consequences’.”
Commenting, Mr Darling said: “For bare faced hypocrisy you cannot beat the nationalists. They will do or say anything to score political points, even if it means attacking workers rights one day and claiming to campaign for them the next.
“Their willingness to say whatever they think their audience of the moment wants to hear is breathtaking. Scottish workers cannot trust the SNP.”
