Anger over foreign worker wage rates on power plant project

London - A subcontractor for Alstom which is building a gas-fired power station at the Isle of Grain has been forced into increasing the wages of its foreign workers after trade unions had threathened industrial action at the Kent site. The dispute followed the discovery that Remak was paying a Polish worker £4 an hour less that the minimum specified under the UK Engineering Construction Industry National Agreement.

New power stations are being built at the two sites, for EON at the Isle of Grain in Kent and for RWE at Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire. Both sites are being managed by main contractor Alstom, which is using sub-contractors Remak and Zre Katowice at the Isle of Grain and sub-contractors FNN and Mon Presior at Staythorpe.

According to the GMB, the national rate of pay for an advanced craftsmen under the agreement is £14.00 an hour, whereas the contract of this Polish worker, on the same grade, stated that he would receive £10.01 an hour working for Remak at the Isle of Grain site.

"As well as this evidence from Isle of Grain that sub-contractors are paying below the nationally agreed rates GMB organisers also have documentary evidence of the same thing at the Lindsay Oil Refinery site, said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny. GMB, he added, wants the employers to agree to this auditing on Grain and Staythorpe, as recommended by ACAS.

"It is shameful that nowhere in the ACAS report on the Lindsay dispute did you find that ACAS actually established what rate of pay the Italian contractor was paying those workers brought in. The very nub of the dispute was ignored, or maybe conveniently forgotten about, by ACAS," continued Kenny.  "GMB members have had enough of being lied to by contractors, sub contractors and their apologists at ACAS and in Parliament on this issue. This lying will have to stop."

Likewise, the Unite union's national officer, Tom Hardacre, said: "Overseas workers must be paid in line with agreed UK rates. Unite believes that the best way to achieve this is to ensure that UK workers and their unions work side-by-side with overseas workers."

Unite is also calling on the government to insist that companies applying for contracts on public infrastructure projects sign up to Corporate Social Responsibility agreements which commit to fair access for UK labour.

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, said: "Remak has exploited its non-UK workers, excluded UK workers and Alstom lets the company get away with it. We demand that Remak and Alstom bring these underpaid workers' contracts into line with UK legislation and the agreed pay rates. We deplore this attack on negotiated pay rates, and this discrimination by the company against the foreign workers.

"We are investigating claims that Remak has refused to consider any applications for jobs from UK workers. These pay differences support the view that Remak may be discriminating against UK workers to save money.

"This is clear evidence that undercutting exists in the industry despite fierce denials to the contrary. The employers' association turns a blind eye to the rotten practices in this industry. Our members in the construction industry have even been blacklisted when in reality there should be a blacklist for the employers who break the law, exclude UK workers from applying for work and underpay their employees."

According to Unite, over 600 people have applied for work on the Isle of Grain contract but have not been awarded jobs. Workers refused access staged a demonstration outside Chatham job centre in Kent on 19 March, with another demonstration scheduled to take place on 24 March at the power station.