Union urges overhaul of CSCS scheme

A major overhaul of the industry's CSCS skills card scheme is needed, according to UCATT leaders.

Union delegates at last week's biennial policy conference in Perth unanimously endorsed a resolution demanding that all five-year CSCS cards should be at a minimum skill level of NVQ2.

Delegates said the touch-screen health and safety test is inadequate and should be replaced with a return to a one-day training course. And they called for an end to the perceived loophole that requires employers to support the renewal of skills cards.

Union leaders earlier grilled Stephen Williams, chief inspector for construction at the Health & Safety Executive (HSE). They attacked what they saw as the HSE's poor performance and its failure to support additional rights for worker safety representatives.

They were angered to learn that the HSE had cancelled the £1m worker safety adviser scheme, despite the fact that the HSE itself had an underspend of £12m last year.

The conference overwhelmingly supported a call for all public sector contracts to have a minimum quota of apprentices.

Other resolutions passed included a renewed demand for an extension of the Gangmasters Licensing Act to cover construction and a call for the International Workers Memorial Day to become a bank holiday.