Unions tell of fears over 'bogus' migrant workers

Union concerns about migrant building workers being lured into the Black Economy from the moment they arrive in this country were expressed at last week's Construction Industry Training Board meeting.

Bob Blackman, TGWU national secretary said: "We are fast -tracking these workers into bogus self-employment."

"Most of the migrant workers are on CIS4 certificates. I doubt whether many have ever heard of CIS4s or the construction industry tax scheme when they start out from their homeland. But somewhere between boarding the plane for the UK and arriving on site they are getting fully up to speed on how to exploit bogus self-employment."

Blackman also voiced concern about abuse of skill cards and the lack of reliable statistics on the number of migrant operatives working on UK sites.

Alan Ritchie, UCATT general secretary, said: "We now have more than 100,000 construction workers who don't exist on official government statistics. But everyone knows they are there."

[Contract Journal, 20 September 2006, p 4]