Storm brewing after Lindsey
12 Mar 2009
More labour unrest at power station developments at Staythorpe, Nottinghamshire and the Isle of Grain, Kent appears likely after the GMB Central Executive Council (CEC) convened a meeting of its officials to consider a response to what it describes as further discrimination against UK workers.
The development comes hot on the heels of the labour dispute at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire, where perceived discrimination against UK workers was subsequently ruled as within the law by Acas and in accordance with collective agreement on the recruitment of overseas workers.
GMB summoned an emergency meeting after learning that contractors and subcontractors for engineering and process developments at Staythorpe and the Isle of Grain are seeking planning permission to use an accommodation barge and disused army barracks to house Polish workers being brought into the UK.
Both sites are being managed by main contractor, Alstom, with subcontractors FNN and Mon Presior at Staythorpe and Remak and Zre Katowice at the Isle of Grain.
Alstom told trade unions in January that it plans to use 250 Polish workers employed at Alstom's own execution centre in Poland to build the next phase of Staythorpe and that it will not be employing any UK workers. Zre, from Katowice, plans to bring in 120 workers from Poland and will house them in the barge and in the barracks. GMB shop stewards and officials to consider how best to deal with what it describes as "an organised threat to hard-won terms and conditions of employment in the UK construction engineering industry."
Paul Kenny, general secretary at the GMB, said his members had, "been let down by employers like Alstom, by the UK government, by Acas, by the European Commission and the European Court."
Kenny added that the GMB will sanction an official strike ballot should that be the route the meeting decides to go.
In its investigation into the troubles at Lindsey, Acas ruled that refinery owner Total and its contractors, Jacobs Engineering and IREM, did not break EU law and acted in accordance with collective agreement in the recruitment of overseas workers for the construction of a desulphurisation unit at the Lindsey oil refinery (News Analysis, p8 PE March/April issue).
Despite absolving the three companies from law-breaking, Acas said the dispute highlighted issues concerning the introduction of foreign workers within the labour relations system in the UK.
'Whilst the report shows no evidence of the law being broken, there is a source of tension around the Posted Workers Directive and its application to construction work and the UK's industrial relations system," said Acas chief executive John Taylor.
The development comes hot on the heels of the labour dispute at the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire, where perceived discrimination against UK workers was subsequently ruled as within the law by Acas and in accordance with collective agreement on the recruitment of overseas workers.
GMB summoned an emergency meeting after learning that contractors and subcontractors for engineering and process developments at Staythorpe and the Isle of Grain are seeking planning permission to use an accommodation barge and disused army barracks to house Polish workers being brought into the UK.
Both sites are being managed by main contractor, Alstom, with subcontractors FNN and Mon Presior at Staythorpe and Remak and Zre Katowice at the Isle of Grain.
Alstom told trade unions in January that it plans to use 250 Polish workers employed at Alstom's own execution centre in Poland to build the next phase of Staythorpe and that it will not be employing any UK workers. Zre, from Katowice, plans to bring in 120 workers from Poland and will house them in the barge and in the barracks. GMB shop stewards and officials to consider how best to deal with what it describes as "an organised threat to hard-won terms and conditions of employment in the UK construction engineering industry."
Paul Kenny, general secretary at the GMB, said his members had, "been let down by employers like Alstom, by the UK government, by Acas, by the European Commission and the European Court."
Kenny added that the GMB will sanction an official strike ballot should that be the route the meeting decides to go.
In its investigation into the troubles at Lindsey, Acas ruled that refinery owner Total and its contractors, Jacobs Engineering and IREM, did not break EU law and acted in accordance with collective agreement in the recruitment of overseas workers for the construction of a desulphurisation unit at the Lindsey oil refinery (News Analysis, p8 PE March/April issue).
Despite absolving the three companies from law-breaking, Acas said the dispute highlighted issues concerning the introduction of foreign workers within the labour relations system in the UK.
'Whilst the report shows no evidence of the law being broken, there is a source of tension around the Posted Workers Directive and its application to construction work and the UK's industrial relations system," said Acas chief executive John Taylor.
