GMB says it has seen a contract for a Polish worker employed by subcontractor Remak at Grain, where French firm Alstom is building a new power station, which pays the worker just ВЈ10.01 an hour. Under the UK Engineering Construction Industry National Agreement, the national rate of pay for an advanced craftsmen is ВЈ14.00 an hour.
The union also claims that another Polish subcontractor being used by Alstom at Grain, Zre Katowice, is paying lower rates of pay than the national agreement.
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Paul Kenny, GMB national secretary, said: "GMB members have had enough of being lied to by contractors, subcontractors and their apologists at ACAS and in Parliament on this issue. This lying will have to stop.
"Yesterday at the National Joint Council, the trades unions submitted a claim to the employers for proper auditing before contacts are awarded to satisfy our members that subcontractors bidding for the work can afford and plan to pay agreed rates before they can even be considered for the work."
Kenny said it expects the employers to agree to this auditing on Grain and Staythorpe, where Alstom is also the contractor.
"If they do not, GMB will have no hesitation is sanctioning a national ballot for official industrial action across the engineering construction industry,” he said.
A statement from Alstom said: "We have addressed the concerns raised by the GMB about the pay rates of Polish workers employed by our subcontractors at the Isle of Grain power station construction site.
"These workers are now being paid the correct rate of pay and we have made it clear to our subcontractors that we will not tolerate any breaches of national agreements on pay and conditions.
"This issue was picked up as part of an established process to check that subcontractors are complying with national agreements on pay.
"We are reinforcing the need for all our sub-contractors to be fully compliant with these agreements at all times."
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