Construction workers protest at pensions failure

Hundreds of construction staff held a demonstration outside the Taoiseach's office in Dublin today to protest what they claim is a failure by employers to comply with a mandatory pension scheme.

According to Mr Eric Flemming, SIPTU's construction branch secretary, construction firms are effectively "stealing from our members" by not including all construction staff in the mandatory Construction Federation Operative Pension Scheme (CFOPS).

Mr Flemming said only 54,000 of the 180,000 workers employed in the sector were in the scheme. And he alleged some employers signed up staff to the pension scheme but then failed to make contributions or made only partial payments.

"Those employers who haven't got their workers in are breaking the law" he said.

In a statement, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) replied that entry to the pensions scheme was restricted to certain groups within the sector.

"There seems to be a great deal of confusion as to who should be in the scheme - all trades-people and general operatives over the age of 20 years should be in the [pensions scheme]. The CIF estimates that about 80,000 construction workers are therefore eligible to be registered in the pension scheme."

However, Mr Brian Daly, of the Construction Industry Monitoring Agency responsible for ensuring compliance with the scheme, disagreed with the CIF estimate of 80,000 construction staff being eligible.

He said it was widely accepted that 120,000 building staff were entitled to join the CFOPS and that many construction firms were having compliance forced on them.

He added that in his experience compliance rates by CIF members with the pensions scheme were no better than those outside the federation.