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French owner, Portuguese workers... the firm lined up for contract at Olympic site
Matthew Beard, Sports News Correspondent30 Mar 2009
A French firm employing Portuguese workers is being lined up for a contract to help build the Olympic Village.
The team of at least 100 workers is employed by construction giant Bouygues, which is among five companies shortlisted for part of the job to build the £1billion athletes' accommodation in Stratford.
The Portuguese builders are specialist "form workers" who erect concrete buildings, and are based in the UK.
A bid by Bouygues will reignite debate about the local employment benefits of the 2012 project. Employment of foreign workers came under the spotlight again last week when a subcontractor building a power station in Rochester, Kent, was accused of favouring Polish workers.
Bouygues had employed staff from Portugal for several years before the expansion of the European Union offered a source of cheap labour from eastern countries.
Workers build the steel and plastic casings into which concrete is poured to create giant prefabricated slabs. As the casings have traditionally been made of wood, they are classed as carpenters and paid at least £11 per hour.
Galliford Try, Barratt East London, Wates and Ardmore Construction - all of which are British - are believed to have bid against Bouygues for the contract to build the flats for the main developer Bovis Lend Lease.
Unions fear the French firm's possible involvement will mean Olympic chiefs will not be able to honour their pledge to maximise benefits for British workers.
The Olympic Delivery Authority is under pressure to make 2012 a showcase for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's promise of "British jobs for British workers". According to the ODA's figures for December, a third of the 3,000-strong workforce is from overseas.
About one quarter of the workforce is classified by the ODA as "local", which means they are registered as living in one of the five Olympic boroughs. However, a loophole allows migrant workers who have recently moved to the East End to work on the Olympics to call themselves "locals".
A spokesman for the construction workers' union Ucatt said it had already made clear its apprehensions about Bouygues' participation and added: "We are concerned Bouygues could harm industrial harmony that currently exists at the Olympics."
A spokeswoman from Lend Lease said: "The tendering of work will continue for some time so it is too early to speculate on which companies will secure work."
Bouygues confirmed it employs specialist concrete workers from Portugal as part of a diverse workforce from around Europe.
Reader views (22)
Bouygues is one of the biggest industry on the planet. At least the job will be done on time, and will not fall to pieces at the first rain. British are incompetent regarding budget and dead line. Just look at Wembley stadium. The Brits are mainly good at producing loopholes, spin, bankruptcy and corruption in government.
- Lauren, London UK, 11/04/2009 23:52
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I live in one of the Olympic host boroughs and will be most happy if the 2012 venues are built by the companies that produce the most competative and realistic quotes - if this is an EU company then so be it - it means the venues will be built well and wont sprial over budget (could you imagine if some of the British unions got their hands on this project??!)
The point is that today the UK is a member of the EU and all the companies and citizens of the EU have the right under law to live and work where they please - we are all able to make the most of this opportunity (I myself worked in France for a while when I was younger & it was great). Either make the most of this or, if you want us to go back to being an island fortress, lobby your local MPs and get involved in democracy. Don't just use the Olympics as a kicking-bag for really lazy semi-popular 'politics' - it's boring and it will ultimately hurt our appearence on the world stage come 2012 - it's important we all feel enthusiastic about this once in a lifetime project instead of taking the easy option of moaning and point scoring and moaning some more...
- Mary, Bethnal Green, London, 06/04/2009 17:34
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What is the problem if, as stated previously, the building is done on time and on budget, when the alternative is late and grossly over budget (c.f. Wembley!!) at the taxpayers expense? In the grand scheme of things blowing the budget and looking pathetic on the world stage when the Olympics start and buildings are still not completed is surely far worse than ensuring short-term jobs for a few hundred extra local workers...
- James Corcoran, Dudley, 01/04/2009 14:01
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"Portuguese firm city move
Published Date: 12 March 2009
A fast-growing Portuguese company that specialises in designing innovative electronics devices for medical applications has chosen Sheffield as the base for its expansion into the UK."
It's funny that when foreign countries invest in the U.K. no one complains...
- Tiago, London, 31/03/2009 15:00
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After British Jobs for Sicilian workers, come French Jobs for Portuguese workers... in East London!
But Lord Mandelson says we have nothing to worry about, our native builders can go and undercut the locals on all the building work going on in these countries' thriving economies. I look forward to a new series of Auf Wiedersehen Pet (or Veja-o Logo Luv, Widz¹ Was Wkrótce Babe or maybe Vedilo Presto Honey as it will be have to be re-titled)
- Paul Wiffen, London, England, 31/03/2009 12:03
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Are there any figures available to view, that show the total workforce numbers involved in all aspects of building the facilities nationwide for the Olympics?
If so, what percentage of the work being carried out is being done by wholly British owned companies?
I suppose the next question is out of those British companies, what percentage of their workforce are British nationals?
I don't believe it is realistic to expect any major construction these days to be 100% British in all respects.
As our luck would have it,Britain is expected to produce a world class set of facilities to host the biggest sporting event at, whilst in the biggest recession to date! The budget has already spiralled and people are moaning about the rising costs. I would imagine that finding a wholly British company, that has the skilled workforce to tackle the latest technology,that isn't about to collapse and can guarantee to see things through cannot be easy at present.
I just hope this comedy of errors government can pull it off and not make us look even more of a laughing stock on the world stage!
- Chris Bashall, Guildford. UK, 30/03/2009 16:21
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From my dealings with French companies, I was sad to realise that they percieve the UK as a "soft touch" in terms of ease of entry, lack of strong competition, etc. The French would generally never permit similar access to UK companies/workers in their home market. They see us as patsies, not ros beoufs, for being such an easy marketplace for their big companies to win large contracts.
- Mike, london, 30/03/2009 15:14
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This government must know they are on borrowed time; they continually score own goals. They could not have done a better job to alienate themselves from the voters than stunts like this.If anything this proves Labour is more "Dog eat Dog" than than the Tories were.
- Tony ,Essex, Harlow,UK, 30/03/2009 14:37
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This flies in the face of Local Authority and Development Corporation documents that London Developers often enter into to ensure that local employment is used
- Karen Howard, Chelmsford Essex, 30/03/2009 14:12
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i notice you dont mention anything about the fact that Lend Lease are an australian company or is it ok if there australian?
- Lee, London, 30/03/2009 13:47
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Don't blame the monkey, find the organ-grinder! - and demand an election, while you're at it ...
- Marianne, SW France, 30/03/2009 12:28
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DC of London, your comments are fine in a time of full employment, but when 2.1 million British people are unemployed, it is a bit offensive for foreign workers to be employed on British construction projects.
- Anthony, London, 30/03/2009 12:20
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The construction contracts will be let on competitive tender. ES will be the first to moan if the ODA goes over budget to employ a British construction company that would need to employ British nationals, if they had the skills, at inflated rates. If a 'third of the workforce is from overseas', then two-thirds are NOT. ES, we live with multi-national companies. Get used to it.
- Ethan Keates, Weybridge, England, 30/03/2009 12:05
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Just like every other word that Brown spouts (British Jobs For British Workers) is it nothing but spin and waffle.
The UK is finished.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe UK, 30/03/2009 11:50
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OK, so what's the problem here. Have the firms that have been chosen proven in an open and fair tender process to be the best people to do the job and deliver it on time and on budget to the specification required? yes? - then what does it matter where the workers came from?...or shall we bring back all the UK construction workers who are living and working in the EU, in the USA, in Australia and NZ and ask them to work on the projects because of where they were born? The Irish built most of London and a lot of New York, the West Indians came and worked on public servcies here in the 50s, the Eastern Europeans came in the early 21 century (and many have left again) - this is life, people, get used to it, as a small nation we benefit from using the skills of other nations' people - and those nations are probably complaining of the 'skills drain' as their own infrastructure projects struggle to compete for labour and skills against emigration of workers to the UK.
- Dc, london, 30/03/2009 11:16
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Will someone please tell the morons on the ODA what the phrase "BRITISH JOBS FOR BRITISH WORKERS" means. With hindsight we should have appointed Polish and Portuguese onto the committee.
- R.F., Yorks, UK, 30/03/2009 11:13
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You couldn't make this up. Makes a mockery out of Gormless Gordon's British jobs claim
- Trevn, Abu Dhabi, 30/03/2009 10:54
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The political correct Labour government does not give a damn regarding the British construction worker born and bred here. Fact !
- Joe, Swanley Kent, 30/03/2009 10:37
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Bouygues have been building schools, and subsequently earning a handsome income from the facilities management of those schools, since the Government's pet PFI projects got off the ground.
- Escobar A-Lop-Lop, Camden County, 30/03/2009 10:21
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British workers for British jobs Gordon. Well done !
- Sue, Orpington, Kent, 30/03/2009 09:29
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Why are we using foreign companies to build this? I am paying extra council tax, although my borough is not going to benefit, and they are givijng the work to foreign companies employing foreign workers. With the current reccession surely it would be beneficial to use British Companies, employing British workers.
- E Sullivan, London, 30/03/2009 09:28
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This French construction company is already here and building the new North Middlesex hospital in Edmonton North London.
- David, London, 30/03/2009 09:25
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