Kvaerner backs down in M5 row - 45 reinstated as tea-break dispute costs œ50m and brings big delays

Kvaerner has backed down in its dispute with the 45 employees sacked six weeks ago in a dispute over a 10-minute teabreak, a move that halted work on the already-troubled œ50 million M5 Avonmouth Bridge contract.

At a formal meeting last week to resolve the stand-off, attended by Kvaerner Cleveland Bridge's senior management and national officers of the GMB trade union, it was agreed that the workers would be reinstated.

Cleveland Bridge's œ25 million subcontract is the largest single package on the Highways Agency's M5 scheme where Costain is the main contractor.

Costain is currently pressing the HA for extra money to speed up the work - otherwise it warns that cost overruns will mount to œ100 million as the project's completion date of February 1999 would otherwise overrun by four years.

That scenario gained further credence last week as the reinstated Kvaerner employees were reported to have been offered at least a further three years' work on the site.

The dispute started on 8 April, when picketing reduced work on site since that time to a standstill.

The settlement concedes the workers' demand for a 10-minute tea-break. Dennis Brown, the GMB's regional organiser, said: "It will be added to the half-hour meal break, extending it to 40 minutes. The times will be 12.30 to 1.10, in accordance with the national rulebook, and 10 minutes of this will be paid for.

"The dispute has put the project back by a month. We've been told that Kvaerner is hoping to take on more employees to speed up the project, with the men themselves being told that the scheme is going to run for another three years at least.

"But a lot of the employees who were dismissed by Kvaerner are travelling workers who won't necessarily come back: some have already found other work.

"I mean, if you found a job nearer home that offered better pay, would you want to come back down from the north?"

Fifteen steel erectors and welders from Motherwell Bridge Construction, who were brought in as replacements but refused to cross the picket lines, are to be offered employment on other sites.