The Construction Industry Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has vowed to will resist any attempt to further cut wages in the industry.
In a meeting with employers the Congress Construction Industry Committee (CIC) rejected employer calls to tear up wage existing wage agreements and introduce the industry statutory minimum wage into the sector.
According to Congress Industrial Officer, Fergus Whelan, the Committee delivered a number of clear messages to the CIF: "We reminded them that construction workers have already suffered a 7.5% wage cut which we were told woukd create and sustain jobs in the industry. All we received in return was unemployment and reduced dole benefits.
"We also informed them that their plans to create a low-wage, labour-sweating industry for the future will not work because construction workers simply won't accept it. Our Committee will discuss the employers demand with every worker - employed and unemployed - in the Irish construction industry. We will urge them to resist this attempt to return our industry to the Nineteenth Century.
"Many of the employers demanding these cuts are bankrupt, or are on big retainer fees from NAMA. They are carrying out no construction work at present," Mr Whelan said.
"What the Irish Construction industry needs is investment and responsible employers who will carry out much needed infrastructural projects, such as hospital schools and public transport projects, to a very high standard with a skilled, productive and hardworking workforce.
"We do not need fly by night house builders who refuse to pay their workers a living wage and refuse to finish their ghost estates. Having wrecked the housing market in Ireland for at least a generation they are now attempting to wreck the civil and infrastructural sector of our industry. Building workers and their trade unions will not allow them to succeed."
