oh dear wembley steelworker redundancies

No resolution yet for Wembley steelworker redundancies
(30 March 2006 11:30)

No resolution appears to be in sight for the 200 subcontractors working on the £757m Wembley Stadium project who were issued with redundancy notices on Tuesday.



The workers, made up of 100 steel erectors, 50 welders and platers and 50 scaffolders from the Amicus and GMB unions, have been asked to leave the project on Tuesday by their ultimate employer Hollandia.



Alltask, Number One Scaffolding and labour agency Fast Track, who employ the affected workers, claim they are owed £7m by Hollandia, which in turn claims it is owed £9m by the project’s main contractor Multiplex.



The unions are now questioning the issuing of the notices after Multiplex told CJ that it had paid Hollandia in full for its work on the project.

If the workers do leave the site, it is likely to have a major impact on the remaining works on the project as works to complete panelling and remove temporary scaffolding on the roof’s arch still need to be finished.



“There will only be a skeleton crew working on the project if this happens,” said a source. “Who is going to take over from them given all the problems associated with this project?”



Multiplex would not comment further on the dispute, but added that a “detailed” update on the project’s progress, which is expected to give a likely completion date for the project, will be announced to the Australian Stock Exchange tomorrow.



The update is also likely to give an update on the investigation into the incident with one of the roof’s rafters last Monday.



Insiders claim that Multiplex will be looking to claim compensation from Hollandia for having to pay the project’s 3,500 workforce around £200-a-day when they were asked to evacuate the site following the incident.



Hollandia and Fast Track were unavailable for comment.