UNITE THE UNION has announced that plumbers, fitters, and welders that it represents on construction sites will proceed with industrial action. The union confirmed that talks with the Mechanical Engineering Building Services Contractors’ Association (MEBSCA) broke down this morning.

Unite has served notice that industrial action, which will consist of a full day of work stoppages, will occur on Friday 6 September, with pickets at sites around the country.

The union said that 90% of its members voted in favour of industrial action when balloted earlier this month.

The dispute centres around the payment of the first hour of ‘travel time’, which was originally cut “as a so-called ‘temporary measure’ following the 2008 financial crash”.

Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham said “MEBSCA employers must be in no doubt regarding workers’ determination to reverse this iniquitous cut. Unite is backing our members every step of the way”.

“Although this cut was meant to be reviewed after a year, that review never took place,” the statement said.

Unite said that a reversal of the austerity era cut would mean an increase in gross pay of up to 12.7% “at a time of ongoing cost-of-living pressures”.

However, MEBSCA said its members pay a travel allowance on top of pay and that they made an agreement with Unite in 2011, “which incorporated the first hour of travel into hourly rates”.

“This agreement had the effect of increasing the hourly rate which also resulted in a higher rate being paid for overtime and holidays.”

In response to this, Unite said that no such agreement exists, and that a “review is still outstanding in respect of this matter”.

“The ICTU Construction Industrial Committee has applied for an updated Construction Sectoral Employment Order, seeking incorporation of travel time in the Construction SEO – this has been rejected by the employer body (the Construction Industry Federation).

“This ongoing dispute, and the differing positions submitted to the Labour Court, is due to the fact that there is no agreement governing the application of travel time,” it said.

With reporting from David Mac Redmond.