Labour MP can stay on despite sheltered work scheme pay scandal

William Moorlag. Photo: PvdA via Wikimedia Commons

A Labour party MP has been told he can hold on to his parliamentary job despite the ‘mistakes’ he made while director of a sheltered work scheme in Assen.

Willam Moorlag was for several years the director of the Alescon sheltered work scheme which employed some disabled workers via its own employment agency – Awerc-flex – at lower pay rates than those employed via regular channels.

The construction, ruled illegal by a Dutch court in December, enabled the Alescon to cut costs by paying some disabled workers less money by employing them via the agency.

Moorlag has said he continued to use the dual construction because it enabled people who would otherwise have been at home to get a job at a time when the government was cutting back on social welfare initiatives.

The Labour party executive have now decided he can remain in his job as an MP, accepting that he acted ‘ethically’ and with ‘good intentions’.

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