Construction companies face widespread disruption over the coming days because of unofficial action by workers over the use of sub-contractors.
Almost all construction activity in Limerick has already ceased and up to 1,500 workers have been laid off following a series of unofficial actions over the past week. Over 300 construction workers demonstrated in the city yesterday, citing concerns over health and safety and the employment of workers on the black market. A protest also took place in Dublin and a larger demonstration is to take place today, according to a spokesman for the organisers, Mr John Byrne. He said coachloads of construction workers from Waterford, Kilkenny and Carlow would join a further protest in the capital on Monday. Bricklayers and blocklayers withdrew their services from most sites in Dublin yesterday.
The actions have been condemned by the Construction Industry Federation, which said they would lead to job losses. The dispute in Limerick began last week when workers picketed Kilcrat Homes, a housing development on Dooradoyle Road. None of those participating in the "unlawful" picket were employed at the site, according to the CIF.
Mr Joe O'Brien, the southern region director of the CIF, said the picketers had returned to work on Friday, but again left their own sites on Monday to picket Kilcrat Homes.
At that point the picketers' employer laid them off temporarily. Workers from other sites then also staged walk-outs and things "dominoed from there", he said. By yesterday, between 1,200 and 1,500 workers had been laid off and 35 to 40 construction sites closed. Mr O'Brien said the CIF was prepared to enter discussions, but only if commitments were given that there would be no further disruptions. "We're quite happy to talk but we're not sure who we're going to be talking to or what we're going to be talking about," he said.
This was because building unions had denied any knowledge of what was taking place. In Dublin, yesterday's protest began at a Collen Construction site on the North Circular Road, where 17 picketers had been arrested and subsequently fined in the High Court on Wednesday. A group of workers assembled at the site and staged a march to the Spire on O'Connell Street and from there to Collen's headquarters in East Wall. A spokesman for the CIF, Mr Kevin Gilna, said the group then entered another Collen site, intimidated people there and set fire to part of a building.
This was denied by Mr Byrne, the protesters' spokesman, who said they would not have engaged in such activity and, in any event, "we were accompanied all the way by a large force of gardaí".
He said the protesters would assemble at the same North Circular Road site this morning, in defiance of a High Court injunction, and make "surprise" visits to a number of other sites.
