Branch meeting held outside due to CIS tax changes

Branch Meeting held outside due to CIS tax changes

London Construction Branch (follow on twitter - @Unite0555) held their monthly meeting last week as they do every month at Conway Hall. But this month was slightly different. The meeting had to be held in the park outside as Conway Hall wasn't big enough to hold everyone. This itself shows the level of anger running through sites across the London and the whole UK. 

There was alot of anger over the fact that Umbrella companies are even legal, let alone the fact that companies signed up to National Agreements have the front to push workers on to them. NG Baileys have been the first to take workers on the cards after workers at Three Bridges Station and Tottenham Court Road Crossrail Station forced their hand. Since the action by the two sites, Baileys have offered others the chance to also go on the cards.

What happened at Three Bridges is here in an earlier post 

The main conversation was the tax changes hitting the industry. For years we have been forced to work as Self Employed,

The Fight For PAYE

 The Fight For PAYE

As a JIB approved electrician, like many in the construction industry have found it impossible to get a job on the cards for the last ten to fifteen years. Instead, I have gone around working for various agencies or CIS self employed direct for various contractors.

Agencies and self employment has lead without doubt to a race to the bottom when it comes to workers terms and conditions. Instead of agency labour being bought in to cover short term demand for extra manpower, it has become the main form of employment throughout the industry. This has weakened on site union organisation, bypassed employment laws so that companies can blacklist anyone they deem a “troublemaker” and seen pay frozen if not fall over the last decade.

 In 1999 I was earning £125 a day in London as a spark. Now, fifteen years later, I’m earning £140 a day while seeing everything else triple in price and the cost of housing becoming so high that even barristers are being priced out of the city. Without doubt it is far better financially if you are lucky enough to be directly employed for a company, this was shown excellently in an earlier blog post (Are we better off on the cards or CIS). Not to mention having the ability to organise on site to improve wages and condition and not having to worry about the dreaded tap on the shoulder on a Friday afternoon telling you you’re not needed any more.

Are we better off on the cards or CIS?

Are we better off on the Cards or CIS?

I am writing from my own experience of both sides of the coin. This is my own view and others will differ, but hopefully this will go some way in dispelling the myths on sites up and down the country that you are better off being CIS.

I spent five years on the cards with Crown House Technologies, was made redundant in 2009 and subsequently spent the next five years bouncing from job to job either through agencies, subbing direct or on the odd occasion, sat on my arse at home looking for work. I have just completed my first month back on the cards.

There is the common mis-conception that you are better off being CIS rather than cards in. Yes it is true that CIS workers pay less NI and tax each week but