AN MSP has challenged ministers in Scotland to end the government’s two-tier workforce after it emerged that the use of agency workers to fill temporary jobs has increased by more than 50 per cent in just three years. 

West Scotland Labour MSP Katy Clark has accused the government of having “second class employees” after new figures showed casual staff were used to fill 432 temporary posts so far this year, up from 268 in 2018. 

There was a sharp increase in the number of temporary agency workers recruited during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic from 258 to 432, the official figures showed.