A series of protests have taken place outside three major energy construction projects in England, Wales and Scotland.

Unions Unite, GMB and UCATT organised marches outside the Templeborough energy project in Rotherham, the Margam green energy plant in Port Talbot and The Oxwellmains EfW plant near Dunbar yesterday, 01 March.

Each project is being developed by joint venture (JV) partners Interserve and Babcock & Wilcox Vølund, who awarded Croatian company Ðuro Ðavokic the contract to manufacture and install the main boilers for all three energy plants.

The 'pay the rate' protests follow claims that non-UK workers installing boilers on all three schemes will be paid little more than the minimum wage, despite the agreed rate of £16.64 per hour (plus £2.37 per hour bonus) as negotiated by the Construction Industry Joint Council (CIJC) and the National Agreement Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI).

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Contractors are also being urged to guarantee project workers will be employed directly, rather than be exploited by bogus self-employment schemes run by sub-contractors, employment agencies and 'umbrella' payment companies.

Unite national officer for construction, Bernard McAulay said: "The contractors on this project are actively seeking to undermine the pay and conditions of skilled workers through their refusal to abide by industry wide agreements.

"Paying fellow European workers just above the minimum wage when the agreed rate is over double is completely unacceptable and smacks of exploitation and social dumping.

"We would urge them to think again and do the right thing by agreeing to sign up to industry wide agreements and guarantee the right of all workers to equal pay irrespective of where they come from."

(LM)