What the Major contractors
want
National agreements
attacked
The future of your hard won skills, trades, professions and
associated terms and conditions of employment are facing an
unprecedented threat as some Major M&E contractors threaten to
pull out of the national agreements across the Electrical and
Mechanical contracting industries.
To counteract this attack by the Major Employers, Unite shop
stewards and Officers have launched this campaign to oppose
these changes. By standing together we can successfully defend our
national agreements.
The Major contractors involved
The Eight Majors Contractors are:
• Balfour Beatty Engineering
Services Limited (Update: 17th February 2012
- BBES has agreed to withdraw the BESNA contracts.
Click here
for Joint Statement in PDF).
• N G Bailey Building Services
(Update: 23rd February 2012
- Unite welcome NG Bailey withdrawal
of BESNA contracts. Click here for more information).
• Crown House Technologies
• Gratte Brothers
• MJN Colston Limited (Update: 27th September 2011 - The
Board of MJN Colston have notified their workforce that they do not
intend to proceed with the proposed new agreement. Click here for more information).
• Spie Matthew Hall
• Shepherd Engineering Services (SES)
• T.Clarke PLC
Update: 24th
February 2012 -
Unite welcomes commitment to withdraw controversial
construction contracts
The above Majors, with the full assistance of the HVCA
(Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association) on 29th
July 2011, wrote out to their respective workforces, indicating
their intentions.
John Moore, Managing Director of Balfour Beatty
Engineering Services Ltd, one of the eight Majors said in his
letter: "The new agreement includes an installer grade across
new mechanical and electrical grades…."
The Majors' letters go on to say: "As soon as we
have further details, we will share these with you and keep you
updated on progress, as we work towards the planned introduction of
a new multi-services agreement by March 2012."
Unite the Union does have the document in question,
which the union has already distributed to Officers and
the JIB Shop Stewards Committee.
The Majors may well start producing alternate drafts, so we want
you to see this document in the format presented to us.
You can download a copy of this so called
'Building Services Engineering National
Agreement' by clicking here
(original draft as presented to the union)
August Update:
The second draft from August 2011 can be viewed
by clicking here
September Update:
The final draft BESNA proposed agreement
distributed by the eight to the workforce from
2nd September 2011 can be viewed by
clicking here
The final draft BESNA Supplementary Information
booklet distributed by the eight with the above final draft
proposed agreement can be viewed by
clicking here
Files will open in a new window. You will need
Adobe Reader available to download for free at http://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/
to read these files. It may take a couple of minutes to download on
slower internet connections.
You will note that the HVCA and Majors have included the
name of Unite throughout that document. They did this before
presenting it to us. TO CLARIFY Unite the Union will not
sign or put it's name to such a draconian agreement.
Unite the Union's position
We can tell you now that whilst the employer's letter identifies
they have had interim discussions with Unite, LET US
CLARIFY THE POSITION, the HVCA and representatives of
the Major contractors made approaches to the union, saying they had
produced a document. The union asked for a copy, but they were
reluctant to provide the union with it.
Following these initial approaches, the Unite National Officer
with responsibly for M&E contracting and Engineering
Construction, Bernard McAulay, was invited to a meeting with
representatives of the HVCA and the Major Contractors, which he
then attended with Unite Regional Officers. At the very end of
that first meeting the Employers reluctantly provided the
union with a copy of their draft new agreement for the sector.
The union side then took that document or 'agreement' as the
Employers call it, away to analyse it's contents, which you
yourself can also do, by simply downloading it from the link
above.
A further meeting took place, where the Unite Officers
dismantled the proposed agreement line by line, and in no uncertain
terms made it clear to the Employers that what was being
proposed would be totally unacceptable to the Unite
membership, and was draconian in it's content. The Major Employers
made it clear they were not prepared to make any changes to their
document, resulting in the Unite delegation withdrawing
from the discussions.
Some of the leading individuals involved with presenting
this 'agreement' to the union were in senior positions within
their organisations when the blacklisting scandal was exposed by
the Information Commissioners Office, of which their organisations
were shown to be subscribers and participants. Unite therefore
consider the credibility of these individuals to be flawed.
Bernard McAulay, the Unite National Officer, has since been
approached by the HVCA asking if he would meet the Chief Executives
and Managing Directors of the Major Contractors on 23rd August
2011. The National Officer will be attending
to express the Unite memberships' serious concerns
regarding these proposals and the threat to their livelihoods.
Unite believes the way in which the Majors and HVCA have
collaborated, in our opinion jeopardising the future of the
industry, it's agreements, Joint Industry Boards, welfare
benefits, standards and apprenticeships, is totally
unacceptable.
We all need to campaign and challenge this attempt at eroding
the National Agreements. This is just the start, the other
Major contractors are waiting in the wings.
Unite needs you to get involved – your job and future
depends on it.
