We won’t take another pay cut, vow construction unions
In the coming days, the Construction Industry Federation is expected to ask the Labour Court to cut the rates under the construction industry registered employment agreement by 20%. Those rates apply to 50,000 site-based workers.
CIF will argue the existing rates are leading to a black market in which rogue employers and subcontractors are offering their workers’ services for well below the REA rates. It will also say the REA is rendering CIF member companies uncompetitive with building firms in the North tendering for the same contracts.
However, Fergus Whelan of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said: “After very difficult negotiations with the CIF last year, we agreed a pay cut of 7.5%. That didn’t result in the creation of one job in the industry.
“It did not do the workers in the industry any good. So it is very unlikely that we will be agreeing to any more pay cuts. They are not the way to get the industry out of the mess it is in. In fact, pay cuts will only make it worse.”
He confirmed that the Labour Court recommendation which reduced rates last January was up for review.
“We will be in the Labour Court in the not too distant future on that.
“We intend at some stage to get that 7.5% back when the industry begins to recover. This is not the time to be talking about any more pay cuts. Austerity is driving the industry to destruction. And it shows a total lack of imagination. It shows a total lack of leadership in the CIF. This is a solution to nothing.”
In all, employment in the construction sector now stands at 100,000, down from 283,000 at the height of the boom. It is feared the numbers employed could fall to as low as 75,000.
