Building workers in Dublin are to stop work on Wednesday, February 28th, to hold a mass meeting in Liberty Hall on the issue of agency workers. The meeting has been called by the Dublin Alliance of General Construction Operatives (DAGCO), which has called several major stoppages in the past.
Most DAGCO members are in SIPTU. Union surveys of Dublin sites suggest hourly rates paid to agency workers are from £7 to £7.50 an hour, compared with the registered employment agreement (REA) rate of £8.85 for general operatives.
A SIPTU official, Mr Mick Finnegan, said most agency workers he had interviewed were not receiving travel expenses, worth about £40 a week, or overtime. Nor were they included in pension and sick-pay schemes.
"There is a feeling that agency workers are being exploited and a danger of people reacting the wrong way. That is why we need an agreement from the CIF on REA rates being paid."
The chairman of DAGCO, Mr Paul Hansard, said: "The problem is not foreign workers, but exploitation of foreign workers."
Mr Hansard said many young Dublin workers entering the industry for the first time were also being exploited. "They are hanging at the end of a phone never knowing what days they are working," he said.
Mr Hansard added that if the CIF did not ensure REA rates were paid, DAGCO would escalate its campaign. A CIF spokesman said net rates paid to foreign workers often took account of accommodation, tax and deductions.
Meanwhile the National Implementation Body has intervened in unofficial strikes by bricklayers and carpenters which have disrupted work at many locations, including Luas, Croke Park and the Pavilion shopping centre in Swords. The strikes are in pursuit of a £1,000-a-week pay claim.
The CIF says 1,200 jobs have been "put on hold" in Swords alone as a result of the dispute. The NIB has called on both sides to abide by the industrial peace clause of the PPF. It says pickets should be lifted while the CIF and the Building and Allied Trades Union enter talks.
The initiative has been welcomed by the CIF. However, the situation is complicated because BATU, unlike other building unions, is not a party to the REA and does not feel bound by current pay rates.
Nevertheless its general secretary, Mr Paddy O'Shaughnessy, expressed the "earnest hope that direct negotiations between BATU and the CIF on our claim can now be resumed urgently".