Jobless Welders For Power Station Jobs
Tuesday 3rd May 2011
GMB CALL FOR ENGINEERING CONSTRUCTION JOBS AT YORKSHIRE
POWERS STATIONS TO BE FILLED FROM POOL
OF 500 UNEMPLOYED UK BASED WELDERS
Doosan Babcock have advised GMB that
they have already identified welders from Far East and plan to
offer them over 100 jobs though this job category is no longer on
the official UK skill shortages list
GMB, the union for engineering construction workers, is to meet
Doosan Babcock on Friday 6th May to insist that the
company fill vacancies with UK based unemployed welders on the
upcoming repair and maintenance work in the summer outages on the
Drax and Ferrybridge power stations in North Yorkshire. Last week
GMB wrote to Ministers and local MP's asking them to take up the
issue and put pressure on Doosan Babcock to recruit unemployed UK
based workers for these jobs.
GMB has identified a pool of 500 highly skilled UK based welders
who are unemployed and looking for work. Many are from the
traditional industrial areas like Tyneside, Teeside, Wearside,
Merseyside, Yorkshire and Humberside, South Wales and the Clyde and
other parts of the UK.
Doosan Babcock has advised GMB that they have already identified
a workforce from the Far East and plan to offer them over 100 jobs.
As the category of welders has been removed from the most recent
official Skills Shortage list for the UK it is not clear to GMB the
legal basis on which Doosan Babcock can offer these non EU national
work in the UK. The meting on 6th May will be the
third meeting on this matter.
Jimmy Skivington GMB Regional Officer who met the company on
this matter said "GMB is concerned that,
despite several meetings with us about their legal
responsibilities, Doosan Babcock still intends to fill some of
their jobs for welders on these two sites with non EU labour. This
is despite this category of welders having been removed from the
most recent official Skills Shortage list for the
UK. They have advised us that they have
already identified a workforce from a non EU country and plan to
offer them over 100 jobs.
GMB has repeatedly asked the employer for evidence of
their efforts to locate UKbased
labour. GMB has asked that they show us evidence that they have
placed job adverts in local, national and trade press and submitted
vacancy notifications to the Job Centre Plus network – with
little result.
GMB has taken a pro-active position on this. GMB has
advised our suitably qualified members to approach the company to
apply for one of these positions. As a result almost 500 of our
members advise us they have applied. We have told the employer that
we will seek a report from each of these workers on how their
application is treated by the company.
GMB find it hard to believe that they cannot identify
sufficient welders for their needs from this pool of
UKbased applicants and that they still
have a shortfall that requires non EU labour to fill it. However
Doosan's advised GMB at our most recent meeting on 1st
April that they are keeping this plan as a contingency. GMB is now
concerned that an apparent breach of the regulations may be about
to happen and have written to Government Ministers and local MP's
to alert them to this
GMB meet the company for the third time on
6th May on this matter. GMB are seeking support from
Ministers and MP's to ensure our members who have applied for these
vacancies receive fair treatment, and that the company meets its
legal and moral obligations to the local community and the UK based
workforce as a whole.
This whole issue pinpoints the need to step up
apprenticeships for the highly skilled engineering construction
workforce that will be required to build the power stations and
other infrastructure projects needed in the
UK. With almost 1 million young workers on
the dole the Government must insist that employers create and fill
these apprenticeship places."
End
Contact: Jimmy Skivington Regional Officer
North East 07870 176 746 landline 01642 241751 or Phil Whitehurst
National lead organizer for engineering construction 07968
338810. GMB Press Office: Steve Pryle on 07921 289880 or Rose
Conroy on 07974 251823