Condemnation of North Ayrshire Council

That the Parliament condemns the actions of New Labour-controlled North Ayrshire Council in seeking to introduce a new pay and grading system that will result in around 14% of the workforce facing a three-year wage freeze followed by a pay cut; notes that the council cites meeting equal pay obligations in an attempt to justify its actions but considers that local authorities, as employers, have known of their equal rights obligations for a number of years and should not have been paying women less than their male counterparts in the first place; believes that many North Ayrshire Council workers are being made to pay for the incompetence of the New Labour administration of the council, and calls on North Ayrshire Council to seek an alternative option that does not result in workers being made poorer as a result of the actions of incompetent New Labour councillors.