Continued ‘discrimination’ leads to further Teesside protest
Members of the workers’ union GMB will protest for a second time in Teesside on Saturday (16 May) over the perceived exclusion of local workers from the construction of a new energy-from-waste facility.
The public demonstration, organised by the Teesside Construction Committee, is the second in just under a month regarding allegations that energy consortium SITA Sembcorp UK is ‘discriminating’ against local workers, giving them ‘no chance’ of getting up to three-quarters of the jobs created by the construction of Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority’s new ‘Wilton 11’ facility in Redcar, Teesside.
GMB says that the majority of the construction jobs are going to ‘cheap European labour’ who are being paid below the rates agreed in the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI) and the Construction Industry Joint Council (CIJC) Working Rule Agreement.
GMB alleges that ‘paying migrant workers £5 per hour less than agreed rates has saved SITA £4 million in labour costs, while local workers on the dole who could work there cost taxpayers at least £3 million per year’. The claims have been refuted by the project’s managing consortium.
'SITA is not playing fair by the Teesside workforce'
Phil Whitehurst, GMB National Officer, said: "The second rally is over the construction of the Wilton 11 Project on Wilton International site where local workers have been unable to secure work on the projects.
“SITA is not playing fair by the Teesside workforce. SITA has discriminated against them by giving them no chance to get up to three quarters of the 400 jobs on the site at the construction phase of the job.
“This protest is not against European labour working in this country but unscrupulous employers who insist on undercutting existing terms and conditions.”
The protest on Saturday will start at 10am in Redcar and make its way along the coastal promenade before congregating for a mass meeting by the clock tower on the High Street.
Allegations of undercutting ‘simply untrue’ and ‘without evidence’
Responding to the allegations, SITA Sembcorp UK released a statement reading: “It’s important to note that, so far as we are aware, no one working at the Wilton 11 site has been involved with any of the protests that have taken place at Wilton and there is no indication of dissatisfaction with pay and conditions.
“The facts are that everyone working at Wilton 11 has rates of pay equivalent to or higher than each of the unions’ relevant national agreements. Allegations of low pay and the use of migrant labour to undercut the local workforce are simply untrue and no evidence has been put forward by the unions to support their allegations.
“In fact, almost all of the people working on the civil engineering aspects of the project are UK nationals. Workers on site from within the wider European Union are largely employed by companies carrying out work of a specialist nature that no UK companies are able to undertake.”
Wilton 11 details
SITA Sembcorp UK, a consortium led by SITA UK (now officially SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT) alongside Sembcorp Utilities UK and I-Environment, was named the preferred bidder for the 30-year Public Private Partnership in April 2013.
When finished, the £250 million purpose-built Wilton 11 facility, will process over 430,000 tonnes of residual waste collected from the metropolitan boroughs of the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (Liverpool, Knowsley, St Helens and Sefton) as well as Halton Borough Council.
The energy derived from this waste is expected to generate electricity for the equivalent of 63,000 homes.
Around 400 workers were expected to be employed at the site during the facility’s construction, however SITA Sembcorp UK has confirmed that only 30 per cent of the 250 workers currently employed on the construction are UK nationals from the area.
Members of GMB and fellow union Unite first protested against the lack of recruitment of local workers on 18 April.
Find out more about the Wilton 11 project.
