Culture of fear

Contractors building the energy-from-waste plant at Wilton on Teesside are undercutting pay rates and using ‘exploitative’ employment practices say unions.

Construction unions Unite, the GMB and Ucatt have called on Sita and Semcorp consortium, which is developing the plant, to intervene.

Commenting Unite regional officer Steve Cason said, “We have suspected all along that the undercutting of pay and the exploitative use of umbrella companies is taking place on the site.”

The call follows an onsite visit by the three unions with independent interpreters, which revealed migrant workers being paid barely above the minimum wage.

They are also having to pay employee and employer national insurance contributions because they are employed through umbrella companies.

“Now we know it’s true and that a coach and horses is being ridden through national agreements established to maintain standards and ensure workers are paid a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work,” he added.

 

The ÂŁ250m plant will create 50 permanent jobs and up to 300 construction roles at peak.

Race to the bottom

“This race to the bottom and exploitation of workers has got to stop with Sita and Semcorp intervening to ensure people are paid in line with national agreements,” added Steve.

Wilton was chosen after the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority (MWDA) struggled to find a “suitable site with planning consent” locally – and awarded SITA UK the ÂŁ1.2bn contract to take the county’s household waste.

Safety and welfare are also an issue and exploiting migrant labour is pricing Teessiders out of jobs.

“As usual the small amount of local labour on site has been paid off and more migrant labour is being brought in, with little attention paid to their safety or their welfare,” said Michael Blench GMB regional officer.

Abusing local community 

“Sita are a prime example of a company abusing local communities making excessive extortionate profit on the back of their employees’ misery,” he added.

Denis Doody, regional secretary for construction union Ucatt’s Northern region, said, “The employers undertaking this exploitation have no shame or morality. They are just interested in making large profits as quickly as possible.”

The 49MW site will create enough green electricity to power 63,000 homes, with waste that would otherwise have gone to landfill travelling into Wilton by rail.