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SIPTU leader rejects CIF pay cut proposals and warns that they could turn building sites into ‘battle grounds’

Date Released: 03 Mar 2008

SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor has rejected a call by Tom Parlon, Director General of the Construction Industry Federation, for a 12 month pay freeze and a 30 per cent cut in entry rates for construction workers. Mr. O’Connor said that the call had the potential "to turn building sites into battle grounds".

Mr. O’Connor was speaking ahead of a meeting in Mullingar this evening, one of a series being organised by SIPTU to campaign for equal treatment for agency workers in sectors such as construction. He said that proposals such as those from the CIF, were "neither morally justifiable nor economically advisable. Construction industry employers have grown rich beyond their wildest dreams, having enjoyed ten years of soaring profits. The construction industry is not exposed to international competition in the domestic market. To suggest that earnings, which are already less than the industrial average, should have their pay reduced by 30 per cent in order to sustain the profits at the levels to which employers have become accustomed is nothing short of contemptible.

"If reputable builders are encountering difficulties obtaining work when basing their labour rates on the Registered Employment Agreement (REA) the problem is due to non-compliance by their competitors. The Director General of the CIF would be far more effective on behalf of his REA-compliant members by insisting that the sector is properly policed by the public authorities.

"The provisions of the public procurement contracts envisaged under the Towards 2016 agreement were designed to support good employment practices and provide a level playing pitch all round", Mr. O’Connor said. "As long as these provisions of public contracts are not enforced, reputable contractors will continue to encounter difficulties, because of the effects of unfair competition.

"Ensuring compliance with agreements would be a far more logical course for the CIF to undertake in the interests of maintaining a sustainable industry than pursuing a policy that effectively excludes Irish workers from employment, while subjecting migrant workers to exploitative rates of pay, for what is highly skilled and hazardous work, often performed in arduous conditions."

Assertions by Tom Parlon, Director General of the Construction Industry Federation, the over the past three days that new entrants to the construction industry are earning more than average industrial worker are wrong, says SIPTU.

Disregarding entrants who are apprentices, the hourly rate for construction operatives on Grade D, the entry grade, was €14.52c an hour in July 2007. The comparable figure for industrial workers at that time was €15.66c, according to the Central Statistics Office.

The hourly rate for Grade D operatives increased to €14.88c an hour from January 1st. This is still below the hourly rate for industrial workers eight months ago. No comparable figures are available yet from the CSO for industrial workers that incorporate increases due under Towards 2016. However the last phase of Towards 2016 should have increased the comparable industrial rate to €16.05c per hour.

SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor warned the CIF against talking itself into a crisis. “The overall outlook for construction is positive and we would have expected the CIF to come up with something better for tackling current difficulties than simply cutting the wages of its lowest paid workers.

“It would be far better to tackle the problem of tens of thousands of low paid workers employed on agency contracts. The Government needs to introduce legislation to regularise their position, in line with similar measures in most EU member states.

“This will help these workers achieve some stability in their own lives and even help them to obtain loans to buy homes and thus help the housing market. The Government should also set about expanding its social and affordable housing programmes as one of the measures needed to tackle our growing problems of overcrowding and homelessness. It would also help ease the impact on employment of the correction needed in the housing sector.

“This is the type of thinking the CIF needs, rather than kite flying ahead of pay talks to target the lowest paid and most vulnerable people within the industry.” 





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