SCOTTISH Labour leader Jim Murphy took his party’s election campaign pledge to end zero-hours contracts onto the streets of Glasgow yesterday at a Sports Direct store in Argyle Street.

Sports Direct chairman Keith Hellawell told MPs last week that 4,300 of the firm’s 19,000 staff were permanent, with the rest employed as casuals on zero-hours contracts.

Calling on members of the public to sign a “No to zero-hours contracts” petition, Mr Murphy said: “For companies like Sports Direct, it’s a way of maximising their profits. It’s about reducing costs, but they’re doing it off the back of workers who are desperate for regular hours and regular pay.

“What we have at the minute in the law is totally unbalanced power, so the companies can do what they want, when they want. The law is totally loaded against the worker, so Labour will change that.”