BP Plc, DuPont ensnared in 'British jobs for British workers' row Economy (1 Viewer)

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BP Plc, DuPont ensnared in 'British jobs for British workers' row
Economy
Written by Gary Howes
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
GMB call on BP, Du Point and British Sugar to get engineering construction members back to work on bio fuel plant.




BP Plc (LON:BP) and EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD) have been asked by the GMB union to intervene over a potential labour dispute brewing at bio plant that is being constructed at Hull.


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BP, Du Point and British Sugar make up a consortium, Vivergo Fuels Ltd, which is client for the £200m engineering construction project to build a bio fuel ethanol plant at the Saltend Site in Hull.

According to the GMB the construction site could soon be the scene of a labour dispute with the project manager Jacobs replacing the UK based labour force with 'exploited' overseas labour.

Vivergo Fuels Ltd awarded the contract to manage the project to Aker Process part of the US Jacob Group.

The role of the project managers is to source tenders for the contract to build the plant.

The engineering construction workforce is employed by a range of contractors under the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry.

Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd was awarded the contract for mechanical piping within the scope of work in February 2010 with 316 manual workers and 134 staff workers.

Other contractors are DSL (Deborah Services Ltd) Scaffolding with 63 manual workers, SEC Electrical 40 manual workers, Syntex Engineering Services with 17 manual workers, FB Taylor with 10 manual workers and Mammoet Cranes with 15 manual workers .

On 11 March notice was served upon Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd by Vivergo Fuels Ltd for performance related issues, thereby terminating any agreement between themselves and Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd.

Redhall Engineering Solutions Ltd issued a communiqué to the workers stating that as from 07.31 on Monday 14 March 2011 they will no longer be employed by them and should turn up for work to be transferred under TUPE legislation to either Vivergo Fuels Ltd or any contractor that is given the contract.

When the members turned up for work yesterday Aker Process Ltd on behalf of Vivergo Fuels Ltd denied any liability to employ the transferred staff.

Les Dobbs GMB Senior Organizer said:

“GMB members have increasing fears that the dismissal of the UK based workforce will lead to them being replaced with lower paid exploited overseas workers.

"Jacobs, who own Aker Process the project manager on this site, were also involved at Lindsey Oil Refinery when the dispute arose over the exclusion of UK workers from the site to be replaced with lower paid overseas workers and are therefore knowledgeable of the concerns and damage that this type of dispute can cause. I am calling on BP, Du Point and British Sugar to ally these fears and to intervene now to get everyone back to work.
 
Surprised this thread has'nt attracted comment, that may be because scaffolding jobs are not mentioned and are not listed as been under threat at the minute, but lets not be complacent and think it won't happen.

What is happening here is the race to the bottom, "Globalisation" it has at its heart economic migration of goods or labour with the lowering of wages and workers rights.

The article gives the category of workers under threat, tradesmen that can be replaced by cheaper foreign workers that bring with them the same qualifications, UK scaffolders at this point in time have at least a protection against this in the form of CISRS qualifications, but how long will that last?. With the expansion of the big players in the scaffolding industry worldwide they see the benefits of cheap labour on their profit sheets, Uk based training providers are expanding in these markets also and will train these foreign scaffolders up to the required standard, its not a big step from there to import them into the UK market with CISRS qualifications.
 
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