{"id":6100,"date":"2015-10-02T16:05:08","date_gmt":"2015-10-02T15:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=6100"},"modified":"2015-10-06T10:04:13","modified_gmt":"2015-10-06T09:04:13","slug":"come-clean-on-wage-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=6100","title":{"rendered":"Come clean on wage rates"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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 \u00c2\u0141200m energy-from-waste plant being built at the Wilton complex on Teesside will be held on Wednesday (October 7).<\/p>\n

 
\nWorkers, their families and the public will be at the meeting at the Acklam Green Centre, Stainsby Road, Middlesbrough TS5 4JS, starting at 7pm.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe 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.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe 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 \u00c2\u01411.2bn contract to turn waste into energy to the site\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s developers Sita Sembcorp.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite strongly refuted a claim by Sita Sembcorp that a forensic audit could not be carried out as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098that would include handing over employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 bank details.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSita Sembcorp would not be handing over anyone’s bank details – this is simply a smokescreen by the company to cover up its activities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Unite regional officer Steve Cason.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSuch audits are carried out on all jobs on sites covered by the national agreement (NAECI) without any problem,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bA professional auditing company, which the unions would pay for, would look into these matters and report on its findings.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat 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,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Cason argued.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe believe that a professional forensic audit would reveal the rates were being undercut \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and torpedo the company\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s claim that there is no systematic under-payment of foreign workers at Wilton.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nCason noted that the public meeting called for by the TCC was to inform everyone of the outcome of the Liverpool talks, as well as to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bchart the next steps in the campaign for nationally agreed rates of pay.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite has members working at the plant and is critical about the lack of access to workers at the project.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

This follows on-going concerns about undercutting of wage rates, as well as health and safety issues.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite is also worried at the lack of job opportunities for people from the local community. The union would like to see the companies taking the lead on apprenticeships and ensuring opportunities are available for young people.<\/p>\n

 
\nThere also appears to be a high number of agency labour onsite operating through umbrella companies who are employed with no employment rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u00c2\u0141200m energy-from-waste plant being built at the Wilton complex on Teesside will be held on Wednesday (October 7).   Workers, their families and the public will be at the meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[406,407],"wps_subtitle":"Teesside energy-from-waste plant urged to be transparent on pay","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100"}],"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=6100"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6106,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6100\/revisions\/6106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}