Unions fight over 2012 employment agreement

tom.bill@rbi.co.uk

A SPLIT among construction unions has scuppered the signing of an industrial relations agreement for building work on the 2012 Olympic Games, CJ has learned.

Although employment talks are ongoing, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) officials have become frustrated with the unions to the point of threatening to implement the industry-standard Working Rule Agreement across the job if a site-specific deal cannot be agreed.

According to a source close to the talks, the divide emerged at a meeting last week between the negotiating unions - UCATT, GMB and Unite.

The sticking point is over demands by some unions for a 100% directly employed labour force.

ODA leaders believe total direct employment is not practical on such a large job and have been trying to thrash out a compromise.

A source close to the talks said: "We understand GMB was ready to accept the deal but at the last minute some senior officials at Unite said it was a no go unless they had the power of veto on any self-employment on the sites.

"It seems that Unite officials persuaded UCATT into their way of thinking so the whole thing has fallen apart again. The unions are rowing between themselves now and we're all getting fed up with it."

Olympic officials are worried that delays in signing an industrial relations deal could have a knock-on effect on procuring work.

The source said: "You can't expect people to price-up jobs when they don't know what pay and conditions the workforce will be on."

The Working Rule Agreement is now being looked at as a viable alternative as an employment model.

One site source said: "Nuttall and Morrison have been down there for months doing clearance work and there haven't been any problems.

"They are just using the standard Working Rule Agreement so we believe it could easily be applied across the whole job."

An ODA spokesperson said: "We are in positive negotiations with construction unions to finalise a Memorandum of Agreement. The principles have been mostly agreed and we hope the final points will be resolved in the coming weeks."