The Building and Allied Trades Union is urging construction workers to be vigilant in the coming weeks in order to avoid any building-site tragedies in the run-up to Christmas.

THE country’s trade unions are expected to ratify the latest social partnership agreement later today, clearing the way for pay increases of 10% over 27 months for more than 500,000 workers.

WHATEVER the rights and wrongs of the case involving the jailing of three Dublin building workers, it has inevitably focused the spotlight on mounting concerns about the competing rights of employers and employees in the Irish workplace.

Builders are demonstrating outside the offices of the National Roads Authority in Dublin today to protest against the treatment of migrant workers in the construction sector.

TÁNAISTE Mary Harney was yesterday accused of failing to protect migrant workers at Turkish construction giant Gama despite complaints against the firm during her time as Enterprise Minister.

The Building and Allied Trades Union has called for tighter regulations governing employment on construction sites in an effort to improve safety for workers.

Construction workers want employers to be charged with manslaughter in cases where negligence causes death on a building site.

The National Implementation Body (NIB) is to investigate how to achieve better industrial relations in the building trade, particularly among brick and block-laying workers.

The general secretary of the Building and Allied Trades Union has called on the Government to introduce legislation which ensures that builders who breach safety legislation are harshly punished.

INCREASED safety measures on building sites have been demanded by trade unions after accidents claimed the lives of three construction workers in one week, bringing the total number of construction deaths this year to 20.

SIPTU has stepped up demands for increased safety measures on building sites today following the deaths of three construction workers this week.

A FATAL accident yesterday evening on a construction site, the third this week, has rocked the industry.

The Building and Allied Trades Union has urged the Government to implement a penalty points system for builders who breach health and safety regulations.

JUST where is Tom Costello, managing director, John Sisk & Son, coming from when he takes a swipe at the Building and Allied Trades Union (Irish Examiner, Oct 4).

THE head of one of the country’s top five construction companies says excessive union action has the potential to be a disaster for the industry.

THE biggest industrial protest by workers since the 1970s looks more likely after tens of thousands of construction employees agreed to participate in the action.

THE Government faces the threat of nationwide industrial disruption with up to half-a-million workers being urged to protest over employers’ failure to honour redundancy payment orders.

500 northeast and border-based workers in the furniture industry have served strike notice in support of a pay demand.