TRADE UNION Siptu has taken action against 60 building companies over the last year for failing to comply with obligations to contribute to workers’ pensions and sick pay funds.

The Registered Employment Agreement (REA) that governs pay and conditions in the industry obliges employers to deduct pension and sick pay contributions from workers, and pay them, along with employers’ contributions, into a fund administered for the industry.

Companies looking to bid for work on State-funded projects such as schools, roads, water treatment facilities, must also be able to demonstrate they are in full compliance with the REA’s terms in order to qualify to bid for such work in the first place. Main contractors are also obliged to ensure any subcontractors they hire to work on State-funded projects are fully compliant as well.

However, Siptu, the State’s biggest trade union, said yesterday it had opened 60 investigations into cases of employers failing to make contributions, and ensuring their staff are covered by the various retirement and benefit schemes.

Trade unions can take companies to the Labour Court in these situations, and Siptu is expecting rulings in a number of cases in the near future, some of which involve five- and six-figure sums.

Pensions Ombudsman Paul Kenny can also investigate cases raised with him by individual workers, and bring employers to court, where they can be fined if they are found not to have complied with the employment agreement’s pension provisions.

David Lacey, a worker whose case Siptu is handling, claimed yesterday an increasing number of employers are not making contributions because resources are tight. Mr Lacey worked for Quest Contracting for six months. Following an injury at work, he discovered that though the employer had been deducting €21 a week from him, they had not been passed on to the sick-pay scheme.

Quest was a subcontractor for P Elliott on the group sewerage scheme for Waterford County Council. Mr Lacey should have received almost €4,000 in benefits but instead has been living on €217 a week from the State since injury forced him to leave work last year. Copies of his payslips show he made the contributions every week, but a letter from the Construction Federation Sick Pay Scheme shows it had not received the contributions required.