Unions to campaign over jobs exporting

A UNION campaign against the “undercutting” of construction workers’ pay on energy contracts in the UK is being taken to Denmark.

Unite and the GMB claim that pay for sub-contractors on energy from waste plants in Rotherham in Yorkshire and Sandwich in Kent is below the agreed rate.

The projects are being financed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, the investment arm of Pension Danmark.

The GMB said the ‘exploitation’ of workers was wrong.

Phil Whitehurst, national officer of the GMB, said: “If the Danish investors and construction companies took part in this kind of scheme back home in Denmark, they would be facing a prison sentence.

“This exploitation of workers and social dumping has got to stop, and if it takes civil disobedience on the gates of their construction projects in the UK, so be it.”

Unite said such actions in Denmark would be illegal.

Unite national officer Bernard McAulay said: “It is the height of hypocrisy when companies turn a blind eye to allow the exploitation of workers in the UK to boost profits, when such practices are illegal in Denmark.

“The Danish government cannot stand idly by and allow companies to continue to conduct these practices when they know that if they promoted the same policies at home, they would be prosecuted.

“Unite will use all its industrial power and influence to ensure that workers are not exploited and undercutting is ended in the construction industry.”