Sparks fight on!

On 4 April, 30 agency construction workers downed tools at a NG Bailey job at Three Bridges in Sussex.

They demanded to be employed directly for the duration of the job. They won this battle and they are now ‘on the cards’ with full construction industry/trade union agreed JIB terms and conditions.

This followed the change in rules about self-employment which came into action on 6 April. Some construction firms have been trying to circumvent the new regulations by forcing workers into ‘umbrella payment companies’.

This would allow the bosses to cut holiday pay and shift employer and employee national insurance contributions onto the worker.

Unite is providing help and advice to workers affected by this and workers have been taking direct action to stop the bosses in their tracks.

37 agency electricians walked off a job at AWE Aldermaston on 2 April. It is a Shepherds Engineering Services job and the workers are demanding to be taken on directly by Shepherds.

Under the pressure of the walkout, Shepherds agreed to a meeting which a Unite construction officer attended.

Being told that they will have to pay Employers NI and their own holiday has outraged thousands of Agency workers across the whole UK and further action is likely. More than 200,000 construction workers could be affected.

On 8 April it appears that electricians on the Tottenham Court Road site walked out over the same issue.