BUILDERS turned the jackhammer on the Tory government yesterday after the shocking revelation that six workers were put up in shacks on a state-controlled construction site.

Six Latvian men were discovered to have been living in portakabin-style accommodation on a multimillion-pound construction site in Manchester.

The site, a former millworkers’ hostel on the city’s Hood Street, is owned by the Homes and Communities Agency.

Ucatt North West acting regional secretary Ren Davies said: “Workers should never be asked to live on a construction site, it is likely to be both dangerous and with poor welfare facilities.

“Even in exceptional cases where accommodation is provided it must be entirely separate from the site where work is being undertaken.”

Most workers on the site are employed by privateer contractor Northern.

While it agreed to move workers from their on-site digs after public outcry, Northern insisted that accommodation provided was “very similar to that used by workers on the Olympic Park.”

But Ucatt knocked back, saying that Olympic developers did not provide any accommodation for workers — let alone on site.

The union said that if the Gangmasters’ Licensing Act was enforced, companies could be stripped of their licenses for such abuses.

“Ucatt believes that expanding the Gangmasters Act to cover the construction industry would be a massive step in stamping out these types of abuses,” Mr Davies added.

The practice was also condemned by Manchester Central Labour MP Lucy Powell and local councillors.