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Government must act to protect construction jobs

Date Released: 24 Jul 2007

Pointing out that Ireland has just come through the largest building boom that has taken place in Western Europe in recent years he said major infrastructure projects and massive construction developments had been completed in Ireland. “But instead of seeing a simultaneous improvement in employment standards, as one might have expected, we have now seen the opposite.
“Most building companies are employing less direct employees as a percentage of their workforce than before the boom. They have actively encouraged the infiltration of the industry by hundreds of employment agencies and bogus sub-contractors who are in a constant bidding frenzy to pay the lowest wages and conditions in order to take the next contract.
“At the same, consultants engaged by the Pensions Board have established that tens of thousands of building workers are being forced to work as bogus self-employed so that their employer can avoid meeting their statutory entitlements and pensions cover.
“The Government has been rightly concerned about the plight of the undocumented Irish in America who are forced to work in the  black economy without any protection if they become ill, injured or unemployed. Here in the construction industry we have a grey economy in which workers are being coerced into signing away their entitlements to become self-employed in name only – with the result that they have no protection or safety net when things go wrong.
“SIPTU is determined to reverse this gross injustice by seeking to expand the opportunities for secure well paid employment in the construction industry coupled with proper training,” declared Mr. Fleming.
“But the target for our campaign will not only be those unscrupulous employers who aim to exploit vulnerable workers, regardless of nationality.  The Government also bears responsibility for allowing this rat race to develop in the industry since they have set the standards in the industry – through setting the legislative and commercial environment – and as the commissioning agency for many major infrastructural projects. They also have major responsibility for those who work in the industry and the quality of their working lives brought to them by the construction industry.
“If there are to be 35,000 job losses as predicted in the Davy report,” Mr. Fleming said, “the Government must take immediate action – just as they would in cases where factory closures result in similar numbers of job losses. The Government should fast-track a major programme of re-training for all those likely to be made unemployed. These skills must include adult apprenticeships, crane driving, plant hire operation, scaffolding. Workers should also be encouraged to take training in supervisory and middle management roles,” he concluded.




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