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02/10/2015
Public Meeting To Discuss Audit Of Wage Rates To Be Held Next Week
A public meeting to discuss the next steps in the six-month dispute to ensure an independent audit of wage rates is carried out at the £200 million energy-from-waste plant being built at the Wilton complex on Teesside will be held on Wednesday, 07 October.
Workers, their families and the public will be at the meeting at the Acklam Green Centre, Stainsby Road, Middlesbrough TS5 4JS, starting at 19.00.
The focus of the dispute is that the Wilton project is being built outside of the terms of all the national agreements for the construction industry which have been in place for more than 30 years.
The meeting has been called by Teesside Construction Committee (TCC) - representing the unions, Unite and the GMB - following unsuccessful talks in Liverpool this week involving the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA), which awarded a 30-year £1.2 billion contract to turn waste into energy to the site’s developers Sita Sembcorp.
Unite strongly refuted a claim by Sita Sembcorp that a forensic audit could not be carried out as ‘that would include handing over employees’ bank details’.
Unite regional officer Steve Cason said: "Sita Sembcorp would not be handing over anyone's bank details - this is simply a smokescreen by the company to cover up its activities.
"Such audits are carried out on all jobs on sites covered by the national agreement (NAECI) without any problem. A professional auditing company, which the unions would pay for, would look into these matters and report on its findings.
"What must be compared is the range of the rates of pay on a site, covered by the national agreements, to those rates of pay on an unrecognised site, such as Wilton.
"We believe that a professional forensic audit would reveal the rates were being undercut – and torpedo the company's claim that there is no systematic under-payment of foreign workers at Wilton.
"The public meeting has been called for by the TCC to inform everyone of the outcome of the Liverpool talks – and chart the next steps in the campaign for nationally agreed rates of pay."
Workers, their families and the public will be at the meeting at the Acklam Green Centre, Stainsby Road, Middlesbrough TS5 4JS, starting at 19.00.
The focus of the dispute is that the Wilton project is being built outside of the terms of all the national agreements for the construction industry which have been in place for more than 30 years.
The meeting has been called by Teesside Construction Committee (TCC) - representing the unions, Unite and the GMB - following unsuccessful talks in Liverpool this week involving the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority (MRWA), which awarded a 30-year £1.2 billion contract to turn waste into energy to the site’s developers Sita Sembcorp.
Unite strongly refuted a claim by Sita Sembcorp that a forensic audit could not be carried out as ‘that would include handing over employees’ bank details’.
Unite regional officer Steve Cason said: "Sita Sembcorp would not be handing over anyone's bank details - this is simply a smokescreen by the company to cover up its activities.
"Such audits are carried out on all jobs on sites covered by the national agreement (NAECI) without any problem. A professional auditing company, which the unions would pay for, would look into these matters and report on its findings.
"What must be compared is the range of the rates of pay on a site, covered by the national agreements, to those rates of pay on an unrecognised site, such as Wilton.
"We believe that a professional forensic audit would reveal the rates were being undercut – and torpedo the company's claim that there is no systematic under-payment of foreign workers at Wilton.
"The public meeting has been called for by the TCC to inform everyone of the outcome of the Liverpool talks – and chart the next steps in the campaign for nationally agreed rates of pay."
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