Sheep stock club must pay out for 'misunderstanding' over wages

A NORTH west Sutherland sheep stock club is being forced to shell out thousands of pounds in compensation after underpaying its workers for years.

The Keoldale Sheep Stock Club at Durness has been under investigation by the Scottish Government’s agricultural wages enforcement team.

Investigators found a “shortfall in pay in relation to hours worked” and the club was ordered to make restitution.

Two full-time workers are involved. The club also has a part-time shepherdess but it is not known if she was included in the investigation.

The Northern Times has been told that the group is having to fork out around £50,000 in lost pay over a four-year period and that as a result, shareholders will not receive their annual £500 dividend this year.

Durness native David Morrison, a Dundee-based property developer, was appointed onto the club’s management committee at its AGM last month.

He said: “It was a bit of a misunderstanding and it has all been sorted out to everyone’s satisfaction.”

But a local resident, who did not want to be named, said: “What has happened at Keoldale has caused a lot of problems in Durness with people falling out over the way others have been treated. It has got quite nasty at times. The club has been very secretive.”

Sheep stock clubs were set up after World War II with the aim of encouraging crofters, who had left their native parishes for military service, to return to the land.

A number of crofters local to an area banded together to form a co-operative in order to run large flocks of sheep on hill ground.

Keoldale Sheep Stock Club originally had 42 shareholders but over time the individual shares, which stay with the person rather than the agricultural holding, have been sold on and now the majority of the shareholders live outwith Durness.

The club has extensive agricultural buildings set amidst stunning scenery at Keoldale close to the Cape Wrath Ferry. It controls 30,000 acres of hill ground, owned by the Department of Agriculture, and stretching from Sandwood Bay to the Kyle of Durness.

A move to purchase the ground under Land Reform legislation is understood to have been put on hold pending the outcome of the wages dispute.

The club’s two full-time employees have both been in post for around 20 years and look after a 4000-strong flock with the help of the part-time shepherdess. An apprentice has recently been taken on.

The two workers both run their own packs of around 40 sheep – traditionally considered a perk of the post.

One of the employees decided around two years ago to challenge his conditions of employment. It is understood his unhappiness extended not just to his hourly wage but also to overtime, holiday pay and sick pay.

He consulted the Citizens Advice Bureau and the issue eventually ended up with the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board.

It is understood the club had not been paying the minimum wage for agricultural workers, which was raised in October last year to £7.24 an hour for workers employed for more than 26 weeks by the same employer.

The Northern Times asked both workers involved, and also office bearers from Keoldale Sheep Stock Club, for comment. The only response received was from one of the employees who said he did not wish to comment.

Newly appointed chairwoman of the management committee is local teacher Meg Macrae.

However, shareholder and committee member Mr Morrison indicated that the club had thought that the low wage was made up for by the two men being allowed to run their own flocks.

He said: “The two men were being paid, but the historical understanding was that a pack of sheep was a part of the remuneration but that is not the case any longer.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “A complaint against Keoldale Sheep Stock Club, Durness, was received under the terms of the Agricultural Wages Order and investigated in full by an agricultural wages inspector.

“This resulted in the discovery of a shortfall in pay relative to the hours worked by employees. The relevant action was taken by staff from Scottish Government’s agricultural wages enforcement team and the Keoldale Stock Club has now reimbursed the employees in full.

“The case is now closed.”

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