Construction pay deal accepted

Film construction crews have narrowly voted by 54% to 46% to accept a one-year pay offer from employers.

BECTU Assistant General Secretary Martin Spence said: "A majority voted yes to the employers' offer, but the low turnout and relatively close margin indicates continuing distrust among construction crews about the employers' long-term intentions".

The ballot followed "long and difficult negotiations to renew the three-year Construction Crews Agreement which expired at the start of this year" according to Spence.

The employers were initially looking for radical changes to weekend working, but following pressure from the union these proposals were dropped.

The final offer put to ballot had two elements:

• Flat rate £20 increase on all construction crews weekly rates.
• Morning (breakfast) break no longer defined as part of the paid working week. Weekly working hours therefore go down from 40 to 37.5. However the union has written guarantees that members are still entitled to take the break itself.

The net effect of the pay increase and reduced paid hours is that hourly rates go up by 9% with a knock-on impact on overtime rates.

Other aspects of the agreement, include weekend work provisions, remain unchanged in the twelve month deal back-dated to April 2007.

Martin Spence commented: "We expect another difficult negotiation in 2008".