LAST UPDATE | 27 Sep

STRIKING PLUMBERS, FITTERS, welders and apprentices are mounting a picket outside the site of the National Children’s Hospital.

It’s the fourth day of strike action, which have involved official pickets being placed on large construction sites where members of the Mechanical Engineering & Building Services Contractors’ Association (MEBSCA) are carrying out works. 

Further strike action is planned for next month.

It comes after Unite trade union members voted overwhelmingly last month for industrial action in pursuit of restoration of the first hour of ‘travel time’.

Payment of the first hour of ‘travel time’ was cut as a temporary measure following the 2008 financial crash.

This was due to be reviewed after a year but Unite said that workers are still waiting over a decade later.

Unite said it has been contacted by MEBSCA this week, and that while it welcomes this approach, the strike action would still go ahead as planned today.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is thanks to the determined action of Unite members over the past three weeks that MEBSCA has made contact.

“But the employers need to remember that making contact is a long way from resolving this dispute.

“This is a highly profitable sector, and our members will continue to have Unite’s unstinting support as they fight to have the first hour of ‘travel time’ restored.”

Meanwhile, Unite Regional officer James McCabe said the trade union is “always prepared to talk where there is a basis for meaningful engagement”.

“Our focus is on ensuring that workers win back the travel time payment cut over a decade ago. The employers can well afford to meet our members’ demands,” he added.

Last month, MEBSCA said it was “extremely disappointed that its members are yet again being targeted by Unite for additional increases in pay”.

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,” MEBSCA added.

In a statement today, MEBSCA called for an end to the picketing and said the strikes are “causing reputational damage to the sector, which will result in job losses”.

It added that “plumbers and fitters employed by MEBSCA members are the highest paid workers in the construction industry” and that “workers have seen their pay increase by over 26% since the agreement was reached to incorporate the first hour of travel into hourly rates”.

MEBSCA added that “no other union is seeking additional increases”.

A spokesperson added: “Taking industrial action against MEBSCA member companies, whose employees enjoy higher rates of pay in addition to being paid travel allowances, will only result in contracts being awarded to non-MEBSCA members.”

The spokesperson also said that while there is a “long tradition of collective bargaining in the mechanical sector”, Unite has “stepped outside this process in pursuit of an unrealistic and unsustainable claim on travel time”.