Portuguese dominate Home Office contract

Some 70% of the 200 operatives working on Bouygues' contract for the flagship Home Office development at Marsham Street in London are migrant Portuguese brought in by an agency, according to George Brumwell, general secretary of UCATT.

Brumwell said it was a sign of the times that a high-profile government contract like this should be carried out by a French firm using a preponderance of Portuguese labour.

The UCATT chief said safety standards on the site are good. But his union is becoming increasingly suspicious about safety standards on many other contracts employing migrant labour.

And the union is seriously concerned about the extent to which migrant labour is being exploited.

"On some inner city jobs we are finding that 35% of the migrant workers have an insufficient grasp of English to get through the site induction course," he declared.

Speaking at the TUC conference in Brighton, Brumwell said the exploitation of migrant workers on UK construction sites is a modern form of slave labour.

He continued: "Employment agencies are openly advertising in the trade press cheap labour from migrant workers.

"These workers are paid as little as half the wage of a British worker. The migrants brought here often have illegal deductions from their pay for accommodation, much of it disgraceful. Some are here legally, some illegally. Such papers as they have - genuine or forged - are often held by gangmasters who can thus keep exploiting them."

He added that UCATT would support "a managed migration programme".