by Cary Gee

IN THE week that the National Health Service celebrates its 60th birthday, news that some construction workers at a PFI-funded NHS hospital in Nottingham have been paid as little as £8.80 a week has shocked the construction workers’ union UCATT.

That is the amount that some gang workers from Lithuania, sub-contracted by civil engineering giant Skanska, took home in their weekly pay packet after deductions had been made for rent, food, tools and utility costs.

Skanska says that since this scandal was drawn to their attention the situation has been resolved and that workers affected should be refunded the money they are owed by the end of this week.

However, UCATT general secretary Alan Ritchie says this is one of the worst documented cases of exploitation he has ever seen. He said: “These workers were virtually destitute. The fact this has occurred on a PFI site using taxpayers money is scandalous.”

Skanska is keen to be seen to be making amends for what it admits was a “very serious situation” and released a statement saying that “since this information was brought to our attention the company has worked with UCATT to resolve these issues and Skanska has attended meetings to address the points raised so that any losses due to the relevant workers would be resolved.”

Further, Skanska insists that it has always ensured that individuals working on its sites are paid in accordance with the National Working Rule Agreement which covers wages and conditions.

The hardest hit workers were employed by a company called Produm Ltd, directed by Lithuanians, which paid them around £6 per hour, marginally above the minimum wage, but which then made excessive – and illegal – deductions including a levy of £75.80 per week for the “construction industry scheme”.

This, in effect, registered the men as self-employed meaning their employers were not liable to pay National Insurance. However, as none of the workers affected are believed to have given their consent to the arrangement it was also illegal. Some workers say they were also charged an additional £228 per week for tools.

The scandal took place at the Kings Mill hospital site in Mansfield. According to industry guidelines the men employed there should earn a minimum wage of £7.31 per hour.

UCATT spokesman Steve Murphy described the situation the men found themselves in in Britain as “unbelievable”.

He said: “It’s like living in a third world country. The workers are signed up as bogus self-employed, meaning they are not entitled to sick pay or holiday pay. Basically they have no  rights.”

A spokesman for the Sherwood Forest Hospital NHS  Foundation Trust which oversees Kings Mill Hospital insistsed that the situation was entirely a matter for Skanska and its sub-contractors.

FACED with a tired and authoritarian leader with a penchant for locking people up without trial, who is far behind in the polls and has no chance of winning in a free and fair election, could it be time for David Cameron to seek refuge in the Dutch embassy?

EVERYONE hates Peter Mandelson, so French President Nicolas Sarkozy can’t be blamed for taking a dislike to the old reprobate. The French President has blamed Mandy for the result of the Irish referendum because of the European Trade Commissioner’s policies on farming. Never one to prefer quiet dignity to a hissy tantrum, the satanic spin doctor and one-time – sorry two-time – Cabinet minister has let it be known that he is-publicly snubbing a dinner to be held next week for all 27 commissioners at the Elysee Palace, hosted by Mr Sarkozy. The official reason is that he has to get back to Brussels to meet a delegation from South Korea. Really?

HOWEVER, it seems that “Labour insiders” prefer the idea of pushing forward Sir Alan Sugar to try to take Boris Johnson’s job. Is Sir Alan even a member of the Labour Party? Presumably that does not matter. And would his campaign slogan be “You’re fired”? If Sir Alan is too busy, perhaps Labour will approach Kelvin MacKenzie, who nearly stood against David Davis in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election before misplacing his bottle. The former Sun editor remains an arch-Thatcherite, but that might
not necessarily pose an insurmountable problem.

IF ANYONE doubted Ken Livingstone’s hankering to challenge BoJo at the next mayoral election, a recent riposte to a questioner at a seminar on employment rights should lay any doubts to rest. Challenged over the question of elderly people holding on to jobs and keeping youngsters from having a go, Ken declared that, though he would be a little older by the time the London contest is next fought, he would have no qualms about taking a job from a younger man.

REPUBLIC, the campaigning outfit that wants to abolish the monarchy, has got the Palace in a spin again. In order to deflect Republican charges about the cost to the taxpayer of the Queen and her dysfunctional family, Buckingham Palace publicity toffs have come up with a wheeze to put it about that the royals cost as little as 61p a person in the UK. Peanuts. Or just nuts, according to Republic. Once security, unpaid taxes and costs to local councils for royal visits is taken into account, the motley crew cost the nation at least £150 million a year. Comparable European heads of state cost about £1.5 million.

HILARY BENN has allowed a little secret out of the bag which reveals his early instincts were a shade closer to his father’s than the “new” Labour strictures have placed on him as a Cabinet minister. Back in the early 1970s, a translation of a Swedish publication called The Little Red Schoolbook was giving Mary Whitehouse and the Establishment palpitations as it circulated through classrooms quicker than a well-thumbed copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover. The book – it’s name was a take on Mao’s more famous work –- gave all sorts of useful advice on sex, contraception, staging classroom strikes and giving teachers a hard time. But the original wasn’t risqué enough for the British publishers, who recruited a team of writers to sex it up, including the young Benn. In revealing this to BBC Radio 4, he sadly declined to detail his contributions.

NOW we know why terrorist suspects must be locked up without charge for 42 days. It’s so there’s less chance they can get their hands on top secret information left on trains.

KEVIN MAGUIRE is the Daily Mirror’s man they fear in the corridors of power and renowned for his perspicacity. Here’s what the Mirror’s associate editor and Tribune columnist said in the New Statesman: “Heavily tipped to be the next Labour general secretary is the T&G union apparatchik Ray Collins.” Of course, he wrote this in October 2005 and Mystic Kev did not foresee the coming of the now non-persons who preceded Mr Collins. But he has been proved right in the end.

THE spat between Unite Against Fascism and Searchlight shows no sign of abating three years after the two parted company. Back then, some solidarity-loving UAF members accused the magazine of using the language of the British National Party. In an article on the Searchlight website this month, editor Nick Lowles says: “Searchlight is not opposed to concerts and large city-centre activities but these cannot be the main focus. Large concerts, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds to stage, do not deliver leaflets in the key areas nor do they address the concerns and grievances of the people likely to vote BNP.” And which organisation is hosting a “large concert costing hundreds of thousands of pounds to stage” in a city centre this Saturday? That would be Unite Against Fascism.