Jobless in protest at power station

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They said they will continue to protest until the government stops allowing their jobs to be given to workers from overseas.

Around 70 protesters gathered outside Grain Power Station on the Isle of Grain, near Rochester, in the latest in a series of protests over the use of foreign labour in the UK.

Waving placards with the slogans "Fight for jobs on Alstom sites", "Fight for jobs at Grain" and "Alstom give us a chance", they attempted to disrupt employees arriving for work at the E.On-owned site.

It follows two protests outside the power station last month as well as a small demonstration outside Chatham Job Centre last week in the ongoing row over the use of foreign labour.

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

A spokesman for Alstom said: "Alstom is acutely aware of the pressures facing the UK employment market and understand the concerns many people have. At the Isle of Grain construction site British workers will carry out two-thirds of the work from start to finish. The claim that we discriminate against British workers is simply not true.

He added: "Alstom is not refusing to consider applications from local workers for jobs at its power station construction site in Grain where it has appointed a number of subcontractors to build the facility.

"These subcontractors, the majority of which are UK companies, have appointed their own teams to carry out various parts of the construction work. This is completely normal, legal and standard practice across the industry. If and when they need to recruit extra labour, our subcontractors have given us written assurances that they will consider local workers."