Construction must change to end modern slavery

 forwarded to NV by Joe Bailey

THE construction union Unite is calling for fundamental changes in the way that the construction industry is organised and for the introduction of licensing of gangmasters.  The union call came in response to an investigation conducted jointly by Construction News and BBC Three, who used undercover journalists from the UK and Romania to reveal the extent of modern day slavery in construction.

Unite said it believes the way that the industry operates means that there is a real potential for exploitative practices occurring on even the largest projects.  The union repeated its all for the gangmasters licencing regime to be extended to construction. The licensing requirement currently only covers agriculture, food processing and shellfish collection.

Companies which operate in the sectors where licensing exists are also required to ensure that they are only working with licensed gangmasters.

Unite national officer for construction Jerry Swain said: “The revelations about the extent of modern day slavery and how it operates in construction must be a wake-up call to the industry and government. This is not simply a problem on smaller sites, even the largest sites have the potential for modern day slavery.  Major contractors simply don’t know who is supplying labour on their sites, how they have been recruited and if they are being coerced.”

He added: “Until the unnecessarily long labour supply chains are tackled the potential of modern day slavery will exist in every area of our industry. One major way to help tackle the problem is to extend gangmasters licencing to construction and to force the rogue employers out of the industry. The industry needs to be honest, if a labour supply company needs to get a third party to supply the labour, they are not really a labour supply company.”
Unite news release. Construction News. BBC Three.

********************

The Horror Stories of Agency Workers

 Agency Worker Binman Dies while sick on the job

UNTIL recently when the Unite union passed a policy decision last year the union had no proper policy on the employment of agency workers.  In January 2018, a scandal occured in Greater Manchester in Bury Council's waste depot at Bradley Fold when a manager and an agency worker was in a scuffle following a dispute in which the boss had dismissed the agency worker's appeal that after 8-years working full out as a refuse worker for Bury Council he should be taken on full time.

The local police were informed about the incident when the manager sporting a black eye contacted them.  Following further inquires the police asked the branch secretary for a crime number but Human Resources at Bury MBC said the refuse manager, Glenn Stuart, had reported the incident and only he could supply the crime number and Mr. Stuart faled to reply to a union request for more information on this case.

The agency worker had told the local Unite branch secretary that the police wer reluctant to act because it was only his word against the manager and there were no other witnesses as the incident occured in the office of the manager and the blinds were down.

London Death of a Binman

On the 25th, July, a 45-year-old man became ill while labouring on a shift on a Veolia refuse lorry whe temperatures hit 37C.  The man, who has not yet been named, working for only his second day on the job collapsed while emptying bins in Thornton Heath, south London.  Private Eye reports that the man 'wasn't a Veolia employee, but had been hired in as cover from an agency.'  Also neither Veolia nor Croydon council made any public statement about the death until they were force to do so by the local media.

Local anecdotal reports from the staff of Veolia has suggested that the lad had been feeling unwell and had rung up his spervisors to ask if he could go home,  It is alleged that he was warned that if he didn't finish his shift, he wouldn't be given further work.

Despite this a later announcement  issued to the Croydon Guardian newspaper by Veolia now contradicts the earlier statement.  Veolia's new story has been changed to say that the agency worker was taken ill 'without warning'.  Private Eye reports that so far Veolia's PR word spinners have refused to explain why they changed their story.

********************

Psychobabble to be used by Tories to get people back-to-work. Is this mind control?

We are publishing below a recent briefing received from 'Boycott Workfare':

"On top of punishing claimants with sanctions that leave people destitute, the Government now has plans to use psychological treatments to force people into work.

George Osborne’s budget announced measures to ‘improve employment outcomes’ for people with mental health conditions. These include online cognitive behavioural therapy (change the world by changing how you think) for people on ESA or JSA and putting psychologists in JobCentres.
Unemployment is being redefined as a psychological disorder and the main purpose of psychological therapy will be to force people off benefits.  Or to promote yet another specious reason to cut people off benefits.

Meanwhile, the Tory Manifesto states that claimants who ‘refuse a recommended treatment’ may have their benefits reduced. This is an assault on the human rights of people on benefits and an attempt to co-opt medical professionals as state enforcers.

We’re hearing more and more reports of the misuse of psychology to coerce, bully and punish claimants into ‘getting the right mindset’: “all new starts must attend an initial two week course to develop their confidence”.

Change your attitude

The ‘change your attitude’ message of positive psychology is enforced in mandatory ‘employability’ training courses promising to help with ‘self-esteem, self-confidence and motivation’ and in unsolicited ‘positive thinking’ emails.  Making people take part in various pointless and humiliating psycho-group-activities e.g. building paper clip towers to demonstrate team work, or take completely meaningless and unethical psychological tests to determine their ‘strengths’.

The Department for Work and Pensions issues contracts worth hundreds of thousands of pounds (Focus the Mind, Achieve your Potential) designed to ‘address negative perceptions’ and ‘instil a positive attitude to work‘.  A programme for JSA/ESA claimants over 50 aims to persuade people that age discrimination doesn’t exist:

“to challenge perceptions that employers discriminate on the grounds of age”.

Fraud

These fraudulent programmes don’t result in real paid work you can live on. The companies that run them are making millions out of a big con: that with a total personality makeover, anyone can get a job.  That positive thinking can change the low pay, no pay UK economy.

Psychological resistance to work

In another scheme claimants will have interviews to assess whether we have a ‘psychological resistance’ to work, along with attitude profiling to judge whether we are ‘bewildered, despondent or determined’. If they decide you are ‘less mentally fit’ you’ll be sent on ‘more intensive coaching’, while those who are ‘optimistic’ can be placed on less rigorous regimes. This is how they will decide who is to be punished with ‘extra support’ i.e. forced to spend 35 hours a week at a JobCentre.

Sanctions

The growing use of psychology, with practically every JobCentrePlus manager an expert in the topic, is not helping people with mental health problems whose suffering at the hands of this system has been well documented - with more than 100 people a day with mental health problems losing their benefits through sanctions.

The newly privatised Behavioural Insights Team has trained over 20,000 JobCentre staff in ‘behavioural techniques‘ with DWP managers regularly sending out positive psychology tweets to ‘motivate’ staff to meet targets. Targets that result in escalating sanctions.

Positive psychology

Positive psychology messages are so stupid, they are laughable. But being told day in, day out, that it’s our fault we’re unemployed or in such low paid work that we have to claim benefits  can really get to people. The language of workshy scroungers is a deliberate attempt to put people down and undermine support for hard won welfare rights.  Claimants are expected to show a positive attitude to being exploited or be sent on 6 months Community Work Placement for ‘lack of motivation’ or be referred to a psychologist for questioning your job coach.

BPS inquiry

Before Christmas, the president elect of the British Psychological Society  Jamie Hacker Hughes responded to our concerns by promising to hold an inquiry. That was then. Inspite of repeated reminders, there is nothing on the BPS website about the inquiry. No terms of reference. No information about how people who’ve been through various workfare psycho-interventions can submit their testimonies. All we’ve had from BPS on the issue of psychology, workfare and ethics so far is a press release saying that it’s fine to test claimants for ‘psychological resistance to work‘ as long as the person doing the tests is ‘qualified’.

We’re not holding our breath for the BPS inquiry. In the meantime, we welcome your own testimony on how psychology is used to manipulate, blame, punish and coerce people on benefits.

What you can do

Let the British Psychological Society know we won’t stand for compulsory positive psychology and mandatory psychological treatment. We expect them to speak out. You could also ask them what happened to the inquiry into psychology and workfare promised by their President Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes back in November 2014?

Twitter

Facebook

Lobby members of the newly established ‘Mental Health Task Force‘ . This includes Mind, Age UK(well known workfare exploiters) and Rethink

Ask Psychologists against Austerity to keep up the pressure. Tweet them here "

Agency Labour on Cannon Street Site?

The letter below is by now a late posting

as the picket was at 6.30am, but if anyone

wants to help they can still contact Graham Boxall: 

Hi Comrades ,

11 workers including 2 stewards were made redundant on 11th December at the volks Fitzpatrick site in Romford by T Clarke. There has not be any meaningful consultation with the stewards or ftos. The job still has a few months to go and Clarkes have other sites that are looking for labour a massive site in Canon Street , we are sure agency labour is being used on these sites.  T Clarke are saying they have no other work and cannot transfer the workers .  We all know the real reason Clarkes do not want union members or an organised work force on their company.

Please do your best to support the picket :

15th December 6.30am volksfitzpatrick site waterloo Romford Nearest station Romford overhead its around 30 minutes from Liverpool street trains leave platforms 12-18 .

Contact: Graham Boxall 07801 863360.

Rank & File Message to Agency Workers

 ON the 19th March the Chancellor announced, as part of the 2014 budget, that the Self Employed status was to be tweaked so that only the genuinely Self Employed can be Self Employed.  If you can answer YES to ALL of the statements below then you are Self Employed:
 Having been provided with site instruc-tions you provide your services without the need for a high level of supervision
 You do not have to accept work offered to you, and can reject offers of work with-out compromising any future work
 You may send a substitute worker to site to do work in your place
 You provide your own tools, plant and equipment as required
 You decide your own hours of work, in-
cluding whether to start early or finish late in accordance with site opening times and operational requirements
 If a job is not done to a satisfactory stan-dard you will correct any defects without additional pay
 The work you undertake is normally of a temporary nature that can be terminated or cancelled without notice.
 You regularly work for different clients.

The Construction Industry Scheme was brought in for the GENUINELY Self Employed workers in the Construction Industry. The CIS is still here, it hasn't gone away, its for the people who can answer YES to all of the above.

If you gain work through an Intermediately (posh word for agency) then you are an employee and are covered by the Agency Workers Regulations 2010.

As an agency worker you are entitled to a whole host of rights that you were being robbed of before under the CIS.