At the largest construction project in Europe, the Unite union is in dispute with the one of the main contractors. It has accused the contractor of victimisation of union members and suggested this is part of an anti-union bias that exists across the project. Crossrail is the construction project to build a new rail link between areas north and south of London through the centre of London. The first section of Crossrail is expected to have trains running in 2018. By Gregor Gall, Research Professor of Industrial Relations and Director of the Work and Employment Research Unit (WERU), University of Hertfordshire. (Ref. 120571)
Since June 2011, Unite has been trying to get a single, overarching site agreement to cover all workers, whereby they are employed directly by the main contractors (rather than through sub-contractors or the use of agency staff). Seeking a single site agreement, based on existing national agreements in construction, would also see certain standards of health and safety upheld, whereby officially recognised shop stewards would be entitled to raise issues such as health and safety issues...
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