{"id":12150,"date":"2017-04-20T13:53:29","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T12:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=12150"},"modified":"2017-04-21T11:17:56","modified_gmt":"2017-04-21T10:17:56","slug":"hinkley-point-delay-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=12150","title":{"rendered":"Hinkley Point delay risk"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Delays to the construction of the Hinkley Point nuclear power station could be on the cards, if a dispute over bonus payments flares up into industrial action, the unions have warned.<\/p>\n

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Unite and the GMB will be holding a consultative ballot of the 700-strong workforce preparing the groundworks at the Somerset site. The ballot will run between May 2 – 5.<\/p>\n

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The dispute centres on the failure of the BYLOR consortium, made up of the French company Bouygues TP and Laing O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rourke, to pay the bonus rate in line with the spirit of HPC Civil Construction agreement. The other employer Keir Bam is currently not at the negotiating table.<\/p>\n

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The unions argue that the bonus rate offered by BYLOR is insufficient to attract the quality of workers needed to ensure that that the civil works phase of the \u00c2\u014118bn project is completed on time.<\/p>\n

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Unite regional officer and chair of the HPC joint union committee Rob Miguel said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Hinkley Point nuclear power station is key to the future energy needs of the UK. The project has already suffered delays and to achieve the 2025 start date for electricity generation a skilled construction workforce is required.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf the consultative ballot eventually leads to full-scale industrial action ballot, we could be looking at delays to the construction at Hinkley Point, which will be very expensive for the employers as hired-in plant and machinery will be lying idle,” he added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe scheme has already been plagued by delays over its financing and can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford any further interruptions.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe would urge the employers to get back around the table with senior union officials to achieve a fair settlement, so building can continue to the highest standard, safely and on schedule.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Unite regional officer Tim Morris said,\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis poor offer is unacceptable under all of the circumstances and our members came to Hinkley Point under the belief that they would receive excellent pay and bonuses.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe employers think they can do this \u00e2\u20ac\u0098on the cheap\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by offering a derisory bonus rate, but the workers consider it to be completely inadequate to attract and hold onto the skilled workforce necessary.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Hinkley Point is being built by the French energy company EDF, with a stake from Chinese state-owned investor CGN. When Theresa May became prime minister last July she pressed the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098pause\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 button on the project, but the go-ahead was eventually given in September<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Delays to the construction of the Hinkley Point nuclear power station could be on the cards, if a dispute over bonus payments flares up into industrial action, the unions have warned.   Unite and the GMB will be holding a consultative ballot of the 700-strong workforce preparing the groundworks at the Somerset site. The ballot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[474,127],"wps_subtitle":"Possible slowdown over bonus payments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12150"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12151,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12150\/revisions\/12151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}