Unite warns poor conditions shrinking construction labour supply

Quarter-trillion Euro package must be used to drive ‘race to the top’

Trade union Unite, which represents construction workers throughout Ireland, today (Sunday) warned that the National Development Plan (NDP), which envisages €275.4 billion of public capital investment to 2035, will miss its targets if poor working conditions in the construction sector are not addressed. 

Calling for a ‘workers’ dividend’, the union said that new public procurement criteria must be introduced which would strictly limit subcontracting chains while requiring collective bargaining and adherence to collective agreements, as well as union involvement in compliance monitoring.   

Commenting, the union’s Irish secretary Susan Fitzgerald said:

“The government will be spending over a quarter of a trillion Euro on housing and infrastructural projects out to 2035.  This taxpayer-funded package must yield a workers’ dividend.

“All public contracts must come with workers’ rights strings attached. Companies tendering must be required to show that they engage in collective bargaining and abide by relevant Sectoral Employment Orders. There should also be a mandatory limit on sub-contracting chains to eliminate the scourge of bogus self-employment.

“Companies shown to have violated workers’ rights should be placed on a non-compliance register prohibiting them from tendering for public contracts”.

A government report recently highlighted the threat posed by capacity constraints to delivery of the NDP.

Pointing out that poor working conditions and abuses such as bogus self-employment are driving construction workers to leave the sector or emigrate in search of better jobs, with up to 40 per cent of Unite apprentice members considering emigrating, the union said the government would be unable to deliver the ambitious NDP targets unless it uses the state’s buying power to drive high-quality jobs in the construction sector.

Unite regional officer James McCabe added:

“Unless poor working conditions in the sector are addressed, the pool of construction workers will continue to shrink and the NDP will miss its targets. We are already seeing vital public projects losing out to commercial developments in the competition for scarce labour.

“Rather than simply funnelling billions of taxpayers’ money into corporate pockets, the NDP must be used to drive a new race to the top in the construction sector”.