CONSTRUCTION workers will descend on a Teesside car park today to protest against shameless industry bosses who are paying staff just £4 an hour — giving two fingers to existing employment agreements.

A huge £200 million energy-from-waste plant, commissioned by the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority, is being built at Wilton in Teesside. It will convert waste into enough electricity for the equivalent of 63,000 homes. But unions have highlighted that the project — a joint venture between Sita and Sembcorp — is being built by predominately European workers who are being used as cheap labour, with bosses trampling on the terms of all national agreements within the construction industry.

GMB highlighted that the protest was not against European labour working in this country, but “unscrupulous employers who insist on undercutting existing terms and conditions.”

As well as GMB, Unite and construction union Ucatt have also given their backing to the protest meeting, which has been called by Construction Activists Committee on Teesside and will take place at 10am today at Majuba car park in Redcar.

Unite said that it had “serious concerns about the employment and recruitment practices” at the site and had been denied access to the workers.

The union said this “followed ongoing concerns about undercutting of wage rates and the failure to abide by the recognised national agreements.”

Unite regional officer Steve Cason said the public protest meeting was to inform people of developments at the plant “which has been dogged by a lack of transparency as to their employment and recruitment practices.”

He highlighted other issues concerning the workers which included bonus and overtime rates, as well denying jobs to local workers.

GMB said it was time that bosses were taken to task over their unscrupulous behaviour. The union said: “Don’t blame the exploited — damn those who exploit. This has been repeated up and down the country over recent years.

“Let’s reach out to those migrant workers — not attack them. We need to organise and protect them.”