Strategic Forum draws up Olympic charter

Chairman Peter Rogers has been holding meetings to prepare a code of practice for the construction industry in readiness for the seven-year delivery programme.

Rogers said that the code would include commitments on key issues such as sustainability and managing the supply chain, and help act as a watchdog on what was being built.

He said: “The code of practice will be a Charter of conduct for everyone involved in the delivery of the Olympics. The idea is to produce‘10 commandments’ that all parties from top to bottom can sign up to.”

The Strategic Forum met last week to propose members of its 15-strong Olympic Strategy Group that will work on the code and liaise with the Olympic Delivery Authority, as reported in Building.

The group will include Rogers, Bob White, the Constructing Excellence chief executive, Graham Watts, the Construction Industry Council chief executive, and construction minister Alun Michael, as well as representatives from a major contractor, a specialist contractor and a subcontractor.

Michael has written to Olympics minister Tessa Jowell, and Rogers has written to bid chief executive Sebastian Coe to ask for the Strategy Group to work closely with government.

The idea is to produce 10 commandments that all parties can sign up to

Forum chairman Peter Rogers

Meanwhile, unions hoping to secure landmark workers’ conditions on Olympic projects received a boost this week when an independent audit backed the impact of the Major Projects Agreement on conditions in use on Heathrow T5.

As reported in Building (5 August) unions are working with London mayor Ken Livingstone to establish T5-style pay and rights deals on Olympics projects. The negotiations will be boosted by the positive assessment of the MPA, which indicated that the agreement had improved the performance and productivity of the T5 project.

Independent auditor Baker Mallett found that under the agreement, integrated teamworking had been successfully adopted. His report also said that absence through sickness and industrial relations compared favourably with other projects.

Sir Michael Latham, chairman of the MPA forum, said that the study should encourage other clients to adopt similar agreements.

He said: “This study provides tangible evidence that the MPA is delivering positive benefits to the Terminal 5 project. I would like to think this study will help other clients to consider the positive benefits to be gained from the MPA on major projects. I would also encourage those responsible for planning the delivery of large M&E projects in the future, such as those connected with the Olympic Games, to consider adopting the MPA as early as possible.”