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DAA rejects builders’ protest claims

Monday, 24 March 2008

THE Dublin Airport Authority firmly has rejected claims made by a group of protesting builders earlier this month.
A number of Northside builders staged the protest claiming union members were being laid off in favour of non-union workers.
Keith Garnett, from Ballymun, was among those who joined the protest outside Dublin Airport at a site where they claim a “non-compliant agency” is working.
However, Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) strenuously denied the allegation and defended all sub-contractors working on its sites.
Mr Garnett had been working in the construction industry for 14 years until he was made redundant four weeks ago.
“I was working as a general operative and I have licenses to operate much of the machinery on site but I was told the work wasn’t there for me,” he told Northside People.
“I never refused to do any type of work for the company I was with and they were working on quite a big job.
“The company hired out work to agency workers when I would have thought that they would look after their own employees first.”
Mr Garnett claims membership of a union is frowned upon throughout the construction industry.
“Work is being given out to non-agency workers instead of employees who are part of a union,” he alleged.
“I accepted the redundancy package they offered so I cannot now make a case for unfair dismissal.”
However, he concluded: “I’d like my job back.”
A spokesperson for the DAA said all sub-contractors working on site were fully compliant with industry regulations.
“The DAA employs a specific independent company to ensure that all registered agreements between the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), the Government and the social partners apply to all employees of every sub-contractor working on the DAA site,” a spokesperson told Northside People.
“There is no issue with non-compliance on any DAA sites.”
One of last week’s protestors was Dubliner Paul Hansard who recently set up an alliance for unemployed builders.
In a separate incident, the former scaffolder turned dare-devil two weeks ago when he climbed a 100-foot crane and spent six hours at dizzying heights to protest over pension payments.
Mr Hansard, who is also a senior union official with SIPTU, claimed that a firm working on the site at East Wall was not paying pension entitlements. The firm later denied allegations that it was not paying pension contributions for Irish workers.
“I could not live with myself working with a non-compliant sub-contractor," Mr Hansard said.
Although the Unemployed Building Workers Alliance is in its infancy, already hundreds of people from around Ireland have pledged their support, according to Mr Hansard.
“All over the country, construction companies are using the downturn in the industry as an excuse to lay off organised trade union workers,” he told Northside People.
“We believe that some workers in non-compliant agencies are being paid less than the registered wage agreement levels within our industry.”
According to a spokesperson for the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), the most recent statistics in the Quarterly National Household Survey indicate a decrease in employment within the construction industry over the last 12 months.
“There are four parts to the construction industry, three of which are performing strongly at the moment,” he said.
“The value of civil engineering work, general contracting work and repair, maintenance and improvement work continues to grow. However, the residential sector is no longer growing.
“New housing output was 77,000 units in 2007 and the CIF project that in 2008 new housing output could be as low as 45,000 units.
“This will ultimately have an impact on the residential part of the construction industry, which, added to the rise in costs, mean that there are new realities that must be acknowledged by everyone within the industry.”

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