ODA hires Corby as consultant

It emerged this week that Corby, who brokered the pioneering Heathrow Terminal 5 pay deal for electricians, is working as a freelance industrial relations consultant for the ODA. Although he is not employed permanently by the organisation, it is understood that he has been providing advice on specialised industrial relations issues.

Corby’s involvement may add weight to a deal similar to the T5 Major Projects Agreement (MPA) being employed on the Olympics projects. Under the T5 deal, electricians can earn about £55,000 a year and get bonuses in return for increased productivity.

However, Corby attracted criticism from some trade union figures for adapting the MPA to permit the use of agency labour on T5, a move which had been rejected at first. He said this week that he was not involved in the current clash between unions and the ODA over the potential use of agency labour on Olympics sites.

Corby declined to go into further detail on his commission. He said: “They have asked for my advice on a couple of things related to industrial relations.”

Corby accepted a redundancy package from Amicus in 2005. He has since consulted for a number of companies including Amec.

The ODA was due to meet this week with union leaders over the issue of direct employment on Olympic sites. The two sides have been in deadlock over the ODA’s insistence that it would be impossible to use 100% direct employed labour.