HVCA under fire over use of foreign labour

Large-scale industrial unrest could spill out onto construction sites across the country over plans by the Heating Ventilating Contractors Association (HVCA) to forge links with labour agencies, which it is feared will bring a flood of cheap foreign labour into the M&E sector.

An agenda from a recent HVCA meeting, obtained by CJ, shows that the association is looking to set up a code of practice between itself and labour agencies. It is rumoured that the Electrical Contractors Association and the Engineering Construction Industry Association (ECIA) are also supporting the move. The ECIA was unable to comment on the claims.

The optimum position, claims the HVCA, will be that the approved agency will be given a "badge of respectability" by becoming an 'HVCA-approved agency'. However, many M&E workers are up in arms on sites across the country at the proposals.

Around 1,000 workers at T5 have signed a petition against the proposals and a demonstration by workers on the £750m Paradise Street project in Liverpool is expected over the use of cheap foreign labour on site. Unrest is also expected on power station projects across the country currently using the NAECI agreement. M&E workers are concerned that if the proposed changes go through, they will lose their bargaining power on pay negotiations. What's more, workers travel allowances, which are substantial on projects away from home, will be threatened by to the increase in available resources.

"Employers will jump at the chance as this could save them £1,000-a-worker by not having to pay the allowance," said one shop steward. "At the moment, you are seeing lots of cheap Eastern European labour being used in the biblical trades such as civil engineering. But there are very few in electrical and steel work. If these plans go through, those who are earning good rates on projects such as Terminal 5 at around £20-an-hour will lose their bargaining power. They won't stand for that."

Another source added: "The way this idea is being badged is that there is a skills shortage in the sector. The fact is that apprenticeships applications increase year on year, but there are just no places for them."

The HVCA denied that the discussions will lead to an increase in the use of agency labour. Spokesman Jack McDavid said the code of practice discussions were a response to the increasingly central role that agencies are playing in the supply of skilled labour. "At the moment, labour agencies do not train. One of the issues for discussion with them is whether they ought to be looking to take responsibilities for topping up the skills pool, especially in the light of our aging workforce," he said.

[Contract Journal, 20 September 2006, p 4]