Bricklayers and carpenters have put in a claim for early retirement to the Construction Industry Federation. Confirming the claim yesterday, the general secretary of the Building and Allied Trades Union (BATU), Mr Paddy O'Shaughnessy, said: "We want the best retirement scheme money can buy and the people our members work for certainly have the money."
The 8,000-strong BATU, a key union within the construction sector, withdrew two years ago from the registered employment agreement for the industry. It decided to wait until the conclusion of the latest agreement, which secured increases of up to 43.94 per cent for some groups of building workers, before presenting its own claim.
Under the new agreement, the basic craft rate will rise from £8 an hour to £11.50 during the lifetime of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. Mr O'Shaughnessy said the majority of his members were earning significantly more than this already.
He felt the time was ripe for an early retirement scheme because "no employer can deny he has the money. Skill shortages mean the building industry has to be made more attractive as a career.
"What we're trying to do is ambitious, but it's no more ambitious than what was achieved 35 years ago when the construction industry pension scheme was set up," Mr O'Shaugnessy said.