by Keith Richmond
THE bitter labour dispute at the Isle of Grain power station in Kent – which, like the strike at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire, was about the use and exploitation of foreign labour in Britain – looks set to be reignited.
Trade unions at the Medway site, where lead contractor Alstom is building a new gas-fired power station for the energy giant E.On, say that Poles prepared to work for £4 less than their British counterparts are getting jobs at the expense of locals.
They have obtained a copy of a contract for a Polish worker employed by sub-contractor Remak for £10.01 an hour – £4 below the nationally agreed rate of £14 an hour.
The unions believe similar rates are being offered at Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire where another new power station is being built, also by Alstom, for the German energy company RWE. They are pointing the finger at four sub-contractors – Remak and Zre Katowice at the Isle of Grain and FNN and Mon Presior at Staythorpe.
GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said: “As well as this evidence from Isle of Grain that the sub-contractors are paying below the nationally agreed rates, GMB organisers also have documentary evidence of the same thing at the Lindsey oil refinery site.
“It is shameful that nowhere in the ACAS report on the Lindsey 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.
“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.
“GMB expects the employers to agree to auditing on Grain and Staythorpe which ACAS indicated is a way forward. If they do not, GMB’s excutive will have no hesitation in sanctioning a national ballot for official industrial action across the engineering construction industry.”
All 250 jobs offered at the Isle of Grain have gone to workers from Eastern Europe while 350 local people looking for work at the site have not been successful.
Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, said: “Remak has exploited its non-UK workers and 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.”
He added: “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.”
