Labour Councillors have voted to cut the pay protection period offered to staff who lose out on Equal Pay regrading from the four years offered by the SNP while in control to three.

So far the senior trade union officials who organised the protest marches against the SNP just prior to the elections in 2007 have been silent on the betrayal of low paid staff by their Labour / Tory colleagues. However, with hundreds of council staff about to lose out those same officials are about to be put under the spotlight by unhappy grass roots members.

In a detailed report considered in private by the council the Labour Administration voted to.

• Cut the pay protection period for staff losing out on the regrading exercise from the four years offered by the SNP to three.
• Reject a call from trade unions to re-instate weekend enhancement allowances despite promises to do so.
• Enforce a settlement of blue collar workers even if they vote against the package due to be implemented in February 2010. This involves sacking all of the existing employees and re-engaging them on new terms and conditions, something the Labour Councillors said they would never do.

During the debate Councillors heard how some staff with an annual salary of £18k are losing as much as £3k a year under the Labour proposals with no promise of re-training to maintain existing salaries.

SNP Group Leader Cllr David Alexander said;

"Those Labour activists who are also trade union leaders who organised the protests against the SNP and campaigned to return Labour to power in Falkirk should apologise to their members.

Platforms for Labour Councillors were created and the outcome has been betrayal of the staff whose hopes they raised for Labour's own ends with an election looming at that time.

In contrast the SNP were honest with the workforce, kept them informed and consulted on the Equal Pay issues and also worked to ensure that every effort was made to reduce any negative impact. Labour in contrast have used and abused those very same staff.

What we have seen on this issue is that there are no depths Labour will not sink to in order to obtain power for powers sake."

Following the success of the first Grangemouth Homecoming Music Festival held in York Square, Grangemouth last Saturday, Grangemouth SNP Councillor Angus Macdonald said:

 “Having attended last Saturday’s inaugural event can I take this opportunity to congratulate the Grangemouth Independent Retailers who thought up this initiative to stage a Music Festival in Grangemouth Town Centre every Saturday for 10 weeks. 

“It is encouraging to see retailers being pro-active in the face of a recession, coming up with bold and exciting initiatives to increase footfall in Grangemouth Town Centre. I hope residents of Grangemouth and the wider district will support the Festival over the next 9 weeks, and would encourage as many people as possible to come along to this free event.”