Debbie’s fair-pay push wins national award

Date published: 17 April 2015


DEBBIE Abrahams has won a national prize for her “Be Fair — Pay on Time” campaign.

The Labour parliamentary candidate for Oldham East and Saddleworth won a Gold Award at the construction industry’s H&V Awards at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London last night.

The campaign began after a constituent told her how a household-name company was driving his business to the wall by consistently paying him late.

“After a little research it was obvious the issue wasn’t just a local one and was costing small and medium enterprises £36 billion a year across the UK.

“Shockingly that figure has now risen to £41billion. That’s why I decided to launch Be Fair — Pay on Time.

In her acceptance speech, Mrs Abrahams went on to say late payment was a leadership issue with the payment culture of a company set by owners, CEOs and executive board members.

She added: “It seems we all agree that tax evasion is immoral. I believe it’s time we viewed paying late; finding ways to pay late or changing the pre-agreed payment terms of supply chain businesses to be as unethical as tax evasion.”

Afterwards Rudi Klein, chief executive of the Specialist Engineering Contractors’ Group and the man who nominated Mrs Abrahams for the award, said: “Debbie thoroughly deserves this award since she is a lone campaigner helping small businesses faced with payment abuse by large companies. The problem is greater in construction than in many other sectors. This award shows that the construction industry fully appreciates the work she has done.”