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Construction workers protest at Ratcliffe power station, Nottinghamshire

5 October 2011

Construction workers, who face up to 30 per cent pay cuts because rogue employers are de-skilling their industry, will be demonstrating at Ratcliffe power station in Nottingham on Friday 7 October.

Several hundred construction workers, members of the country’s largest trade union, Unite, will be staging their protest outside Ratcliffe power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar, Nottinghamshire, NG11 0EE between 6am and 8am.

Ratcliffe power station has been targeted as one of its contractors, Spie Matthew Hall, is one of a group of breakaway construction companies which are imposing semi-skilled grades into the mechanical and electrical sector.

Unite regional officer, Steve Syson, said: “By protesting outside Ratcliffe power station, construction workers will be showing their employers just how fired up they are at the threat to de-skill their jobs and cut their pay by a third.

"If these companies get away with this attack our members won't be able to pay for their mortgages or support their families.

"Construction workers have made it clear they will not accept a pay cut. They have been protesting for weeks and will not stop until their employers have returned to the negotiating table for a constructive dialogue."

Workers in five of the seven breakaway companies have been written to by their managers with a stark choice - sign new contracts on much inferior pay, and terms and conditions or face the sack on 7 December.

The employers want to withdraw from five long-held agreements and replace them with a new agreement which will allow employers to introduce semi-skilled grades and dictate rather than negotiate on pay, holiday entitlement, overtime, and what constitutes away work.

But five of the seven have upped the stakes. Balfour Beatty, Crown House Technologies, Spie Matthew Hall, Shepherd Engineering Services and NG Bailey have issued Unite with legal notice of their intention to dismiss, with notice, thousands of employees before re-engaging them on new inferior contracts.

ENDS

For further information please contact Unite communications officer Liane Groves on 07793 661657 or Unite regional officer Steve Syson on 07960 091887.

Notes to news editors:

The seven major break-away contractors currently involved are: Balfour Beatty Engineering Services Limited; NG Bailey Building Services; Crown House Technologies; Gratte Brothers; Spie Matthew Hall; Shepherd Engineering Services (SES); and T. Clarke PLC.

Unite has been told by these major employers that they will no longer be party to the following agreements: JIB (Joint Industry Board for the Electrical Contracting Industry); SJIB (Scottish Joint Industry Board for the Electrical Contracting Industry); JIB-PMES (Joint Industry Board for Plumbing Mechanical Engineering Services in England and Wales); SNIJIB (Scottish and Northern Ireland Joint Industry Board for the Plumbing Industry); HVAC (National Agreement for the Heating, Ventilating, Air Conditioning, Piping and Domestic Engineering Industry); MPA (Major Projects Agreement).