Carpenters take over crane in protest about unpaid wages

Three men were occupying a crane on a Dublin building site last night in a protest about wages. The men - all carpenters - took over the crane yesterday morning after they were first refused entry to the site, a housing development at Balgaddy in west Dublin.

One of the three, Mr Daniel O'Connell jnr, said they were protesting over the non-payment of three weeks' wages, after their employers lost the contract with the site developers. He said the men had blankets and provisions, and were prepared to stay on the crane overnight, at least.

Gardaí were called to the scene early yesterday, but later withdrew, saying it was a civil matter.

Work on the site was suspended after the protest began, with some of the 200 workers transferred to other projects.

The company overseeing the development, Gama Construction Ireland Ltd, said the carpenters were not and had never been its employees, and were now trespassing on company property.

A spokeswoman said they had worked for a company called Cox & Shalloe, which had subcontracted work from the site's main roofing contractors, P & M Carpentry.

P & M last week dispensed with the services of Cox & Shalloe, she added, because of dissatisfaction with the quality and speed of the work being done.

But Mr O'Connell said he had never heard of Cox & Shalloe, and as far as he and his colleagues were concerned, they were employed by P & M.

Either way it was up to Gama, as the overall contractor, to ensure they were paid for the work done, he said.

The three were initially asked to do the work on a price basis, Mr O'Connell said, but they refused and instead were hired at a daily rate of €170 after tax. A payment offered in settlement last week was the equivalent of €30 a day gross.

He rejected the claim that work was unacceptably slow, saying that stormy weather and the October bank holiday weekend had been responsible for any delays.

The carpenters are members of the Building and Allied Trades Union, which was seeking talks yesterday with Gama.

The union's regional organiser, Mr Tom Fitzgerald, said he did not want his members "seriously endangering themselves in this way", but the union would support them if they continued the protest.

Meanwhile, the carpenters complained that a nine-foot fence erected around the base of the crane during the afternoon had compromised their safety.

Confirming that a fence had been erected, the Gama spokeswoman said it was erected to discourage unauthorised entry on to the site by people attempting to help the protesters. It was erected in the interests of safety, she added.