CONSTRUCTION workers launched a protest at the weekend against rip-off bosses exploiting cheap labour from eastern Europe for a multimillion-pound construction project in the north-east of England.

General union GMB says employers on the publicly funded construction of an energy-from-waste facility at Redcar are refusing jobs to local workers and are employing migrant workers for £5 an hour less.

Private consortium Sita Sembcorp has been commissioned by Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority to build and operate the plant, a contract estimated to be worth £1.18 billion over 30 years.

The union also says the company’s refusal to employ local construction workers has so far saved the firm £4 million in wages — while keeping local workers unemployed is costing the taxpayer £3 million a year.

Saturday’s protest was the second to be staged by GMB construction workers.

GMB national officer Phil Whitehurst said: “Sita is not playing fair by the Teesside workforce. Sita has discriminated against them by giving them no chance to get up to three-quarters of the 400 jobs on the site at the construction phase of the job.

“The project is being built predominately using migrant workers from eastern Europe who are being paid £5 per hour below the agreed rates for engineering construction workers.

“This protest is not against European labour working in this country but unscrupulous employers who insist on undercutting existing terms and conditions.”
He accused the government and employers of exploiting free movement of workers in the European Union to undercut wages.
peterlazenby@peoples-press.com