Construction deal secured

Following protracted negotiations, the construction unions (UCATT, Unite and GMB) have secured an improved two-year pay deal for workers covered by the Construction Industry Joint Council (CIJC) agreement.

 
Pay rates will increase by 2.5 per cent from July 25, 2016 and then by a further 2.75 per cent in June 2017. Industry sick pay and subsistence allowance will also increase at least in line with the basic pay rate increases.

Workers will receive an extra day’s holiday from January 1, 2017 which is worth an additional 0.4 per cent. The taking of holidays has also been made more flexible.

Travel allowances have been reconfigured and will now be calculated in miles rather than kilometres. A number of skilled operative rates including (slinger/signaller, banksman, and fork lift truck and telehandler drivers) have received pay increases above the basic award.

Despite a settlement being reached for the 400,000 workers (making it the largest in the industry) in some way covered by the CIJC, the unions have put the employers on notice that the agreement is increasingly ‘not fit for purpose’.

Areas of concern include: rates of pay, the failure to recognise the London Living Wage, the lack of a mechanism to ensure the agreement applies to company supply chains and several other matters.

“While we welcome this improved pay deal, it must act as a firm foundation for moving the agreement forward,” said Unite national officer for construction John Allott.

“The employers need to recognise that the deal is not an end in itself, but the beginning of the journey to address many of the problems that currently face our members in construction,” he added.

“The CIJC agreement urgently needs to be revamped for the modern workplace – and the unions want to work constructively with employers to achieve this goal.”

UCATT acting general secretary Brian Rye also noted that the deal ensures that while workers will enjoy an above inflation increase for the next two years, employers still need to understand that the agreement “does not meet the needs of the workforce.”

“Unless it is radically reformed it will soon cease to be relevant to the industry,” he said.

GMB national officer for construction Phil Whitehurst highlighted the over inflation increases over the length of the two-year deal, as well as the retrospective increases in sick pay and subsistence allowances from July 25,  2016 and an extra days annual leave from January 2017.

“GMB will consult its members with a firm recommendation of acceptance, that said the CIJC working rule agreement is still by no means the agreement of choice by the whole construction industry being well behind the terms and conditions of other construction agreements such as NAECI and JIB,” he said.

“All three unions have tabled warnings to the employers that the agreement needs a thorough overall to bring it into the 21st century or it will wither at the vine and become unfit for purpose in a future innovative construction industry,” Whitehurst added.