Amicus warns that european contractors are gaining an unfair advantage by employing cheap foreign labour on projects undertaken in the UK, while British firms have to work to NAECI National Agreement terms.
Union officials have hit out at European contractors winning work in the UK by profiting from lax labour regulations. The unions now intend to lobby parliament.

Paul Corby, Amicus national officer and secretary of the National Engineering Construction Committee (NECC) states: "It is outrageous that French, German and Belgian clients and contractors should be undertaking projects in the UK operating on cheap foreign labour, when in their own countries they have highly regulated and controlled construction industries."

The practice came to light on a major engineering contract in Nottinghamshire, where UK contractors who bid for the contract were undercut by £2.1 million, one third of the project value, by Belgian company Vermeeson. The contractor intends to use a low cost Portuguese labour force. A further case in Mold, North Wales, sees another Belgian firm, Pirson, refusing to utilise UK operatives on its contract for Castle Cement (owned by the German Heidleberg Group) on the grounds of prohibitive price.

The NECC unions, Amicus, GMB and T&GWU, met DTI minister Gerry Sutcliffe on 11 November to voice their concerns and are lobbying parliament on 2 December to pressure the UK government to sign up to the Posted Workers Directive, which would give UK workers the same rights as workers in other European countries.

Corby says: "We want government to sign up to the Posted Workers Directive and amend clause 3:1 to say foreign firms should bid on the same basis as British companies for UK projects. We have a ridiculous situation where we are getting the worst of everything in Europe."

He continues: "It is doubly ironic that the UK government, through the Health and Safety Executive, is pressing clients and contractors to get the UK workforce through a skills competence accreditation system, only to see our workers being undercut by cheap foreign labour from countries with appalling health and safety records and no proven competence."

Corby warns that while union leaders have called for calm, the situation is causing widespread unrest on UK sites, with many growing disconcerted and calling for industrial action. "We have called for common sense amongst our members because this is a political problem and we don't want to undermine the position of our industry and its members with drastic measures," says Corby.

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor