The Government and employers "have to end this game of Russian roulette with our lives", a building workers' leader told over 1,000 SIPTU members yesterday. They marched through Dublin city centre to protest at recent deaths in the industry.
The chairman of the Dublin Alliance of General Construction Operatives (DAGCO), Mr Andrew McGuinness, said almost 100 building workers had lost their lives and thousands had been injured since the start of the construction boom in 1994.
Yesterday, another young man died on a building site in Co Cavan. Mr Gavin Brady (19) died when a trench collapsed at a site in Scotstown, Ballyconnell. Mr McGuinness called on the Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, to appoint 100 building workers as "safety auditors" on building sites because of the shortage of industrial inspectors.
Mr McGuinness was speaking at an impromptu meeting outside Mr Kitt's office during a march from Liberty Hall to the headquarters of the Construction Industry Federation on Canal Road, where the marchers observed a minute's silence.
It was called following the deaths of five building workers in the past five weeks.
Several workers on the march said they had been told by employers that they would lose their jobs if they took part in yesterday's unofficial stoppage and protest.
The president of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, Mr Tony Whelan, said some builders had threatened to obtain injunctions against the organisers.
Mr Whelan, a former bricklayer, said the DCTU fully supported the demand of the Dublin alliance that 100 building workers be seconded as safety auditors on sites.
Although the march was unofficial, several trade union officials participated, including SIPTU's construction branch secretary, Mr Eric Fleming, the assistant secretary, Mr Dermot O'Loughlin, and the union's safety officer, Mr Sylvester Cronin.
Mr Cronin said the Health and Safety Authority could conduct only 4,000 inspections a year. There were 10,000 sites.
"The Minister says he can't have Health and Safety Authority representatives on every site. We accept that, but he can have a safety auditor covering each site."
Mr Fleming said: "In every country where this problem has been cracked, it has been by building workers and employers taking ownership of health and safety on the sites".
Mr O'Loughlin said Mr Kitt was mistaken in thinking fatalities were decreasing. There had been 29 deaths in 1998, but that had been an exceptionally bad year. The figure so far this year suggested there would be more deaths than in 1997, when 15 workers died, or 1996 when 13 were killed on sites.
He put the cost of seconding 100 building workers as safety auditors to sites at £1.1 million, or 0.01 per cent of the £11 billion expenditure projected for the industry this year.
Mr Kitt said later he has asked the HSA to convene a high-level meeting of employers and trade unions in the construction industry "to discuss possible additional initiatives in the sphere of health and safety".