contribution by Naomi Westland

The scale of the electricians’ employment crisis came to light this week as the UK’s largest trade union told Liberal Conspiracy that thousands of workers will lose their jobs if they don’t accept new contracts with a huge cut in pay and allowances

Over 6000 electricians working for seven of the biggest building firms are being forced to choose between a 35% pay-cut and redundancy, according Unite the Union.

The seven companies – Balfour Beatty, Gratte Brothers, Crown House, NG Baileys, T. Clarkes, Shepherds Engineering and Matthew Hall – have pulled out of a pay deal with the unions known as the Joint Industry Board agreement, which has set pay and conditions in the industry for the last 40 years.

They have introduced a new contract –the Building and Engineering Services National Agreement (BESNA) – which includes a new lower tier of ‘installer’, a position Unite says is being offered to qualified electricians.

Bernard McAulay, north east regional officer for Unite, said:

This new contract will reduce wages by 26%. When you factor in travel and accommodation allowances it amounts to a 35% cut. If those who have been served redundancy notices don’t accept it, they will be out of a job.

It will mean the de-skilling of qualified electricians who will be rehired on a lower tier. It also raises a number of safety issues. There’s a proven track record of disasters in the construction industry and non-observance of existing agreements will be a catastrophe.

Blane Judd, chief executive of the Heating and Ventilating Contractors’ Association, the trade body that developed the new agreement, dismissed the pay cut claim as ‘total fiction’. He denied there would be job losses and said a third of the workforce would be better off.

“The BESNA agreement is about responding to changes in the construction industry,” he said. “If we don’t evolve then we can’t remain competitive and we could see British firms lose jobs to foreign contractors.”

—
Naomi Westland is a freelance journalist and political journalism MA student at City

Reader comments

1. Glasgow Uni Occupied

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2. Andy S

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6. TheCreativeCrip

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