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Interserve site hit by strike action

25 Apr 16 About 70 scaffolders and labourers are taking strike action at a Glasgow waste-to-energy plant construction site in a long-running pay parity dispute.

CGI of the completed Glasgow Recycling & Renewable Energy Centre
CGI of the completed Glasgow Recycling & Renewable Energy Centre

A two-day strike takes place on Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th April 2016. A second 48-hour strike is planned to start on Tuesday 3rd May.

The workers are members of the Unite union, employed by Interserve Industrial Services on construction of the £154m Glasgow Recycling & Renewable Energy Centre (GRRC) site in Polmadie.

The crux of the dispute is that when construction work started in November 2013 the scaffolders and labourers were employed on CIJC nationally agreed pay rates that are now less than workers subsequently employed on rates equivalent to the NAECI national agreement or greater.

Unite regional officer Stephen Deans said: “This dispute has been running since last June. What appears to have happened is that Interserve employed the workers going on strike on the CIJC rate.

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 “But the firm and their subcontractors are paying new workers on the site at the higher nationally NAECI agreed rate or greater. They have had to employ people from across Scotland and even from outside Scotland, so they have had to pay more to attract the travelling workforce.

 “What we are calling for is pay parity for all workers on the site that has a workforce of between 300 to 400 workers. This could mean an uplift of between £4 and £5 an hour for our members, depending on their jobs.”

Mr Deans said that union reps met Interserve management on Thursday 21st April but without resolution.

 “We want management to get back around the table and seriously negotiate on the issue of pay parity – we hope the two 48-hour strikes will focus management’s mind,” he said.

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MPU
MPU

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