Foreign labour protest at Jobcentre

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About 20 protesters gathered outside Chatham Jobcentre Plus in Kent, to stage a low-key demonstration demanding fair access to employment.

Protesters held placards and banners stating "Fight for jobs at Grain", "GMB says no to discrimination and calls for equal opportunities for workers to work" and "Alstom give us a chance".

The small demonstration follows two protests last month outside Grain Power Station over claims jobs are going to overseas rather than UK workers and comes before a planned large-scale protest at the Grain site next Tuesday.

Alstom has been contracted by power giant E.On to build a new power station at Grain.

However, demonstrators claim skilled workers are being denied the chance to apply for work.

They claim Alstom's Polish sub-contractors, Remak and ZRE, are refusing to consider applications from UK labourers for the estimated 450 jobs available over the course of the project.

Last week union officials demanded an explanation from employers amid claims that Polish workers at the site were being paid £10.01 an hour rather than the nationally agreed £14.

Alstom moved to head off any strike threat by stating it was committed to ensuring non-UK workers were being paid the correct rate of pay by sub-contractors and it would not tolerate any breaches of national agreements on pay and conditions.

Unite has called on the Government to insist that companies applying for contracts on public infrastructure projects, sign up to Corporate Social Responsibility agreements which commit to fair access for UK labour.