WORKERS on Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route (AWPR) road scheme are “being charged for the privilege of being paid,” Richard Leonard said today.

Pay slips for construction workers on the flagship scheme show that a “margin charge” is deducted from wages by an umbrella company.

The scheme is the largest road-building project of its kind anywhere in Britain. When work started in 2015, it was hailed by Nicola Sturgeon as a “big win for local communities, businesses and road users.”

But the First Minister faced pressure at her weekly question time session today from Scottish Labour leader Mr Leonard, who said his party had been shown payslips showing the deductions.

Mr Leonard said it was one of many construction projects to use umbrella companies — a payroll scheme which allows companies to dodge tax, cut costs and exploit workers.

On the AWPR, workers employed on constructing the route have been charged to be paid their wages from a number of umbrella firms, including DLP Payroll Solutions. 

Mr Leonard said: “The SNP government is handing over millions of pounds of public money to these companies and they are treating workers shamefully.  

“Redacted pay slips from workers on the flagship Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route project show that they were being charged for the privilege of being paid.

“Workers have been blatantly exploited on a contract funded by the SNP government. SNP ministers now must take steps to ensure this never happens again.”

DLP Payroll Solutions appears to have gone out of business and could not be contacted today.

But trade union Unite, which represents workers on the project, said that some workers were still being employed through umbrella companies and were still having a chunk of their pay deducted.

Under the arrangement, workers become liable for employer national insurance contributions as well as their own employee stamps.

Ms Sturgeon said the government would “look at any information that Richard Leonard wants to make available.”

She insisted her administration “has gone further than any government in the UK in terms of embedding fair approaches in things like the living wage, zero hours contracts, blacklisting into the public procurement process.”