Building workers may defy High Court injunctions prohibiting them from picketing Crampton sites in Dublin if a dispute over sub-contractors is not resolved. A group called Building Workers Against the Black Economy is demanding that large building firms and developers employ labour directly rather than farm out work to sub-contractors.
On Monday, Crampton obtained an injunction against members of the Building and Allied Trades Union (BATU), who had placed unofficial pickets on the company's £29 million development at the Smurfit Business School at University College, Dublin.
A further hearing is to be held next week over the issue of whether the union itself should be made a party to the injunction.
Crampton has already obtained two injunctions preventing BATU members from picketing its £11 million development at Dublin City University. BATU served strike notice on Crampton because it claimed that a sub-contractor on the site was not prepared to employ workers on a PAYE basis.
The court found that the union had not complied fully with the provisions of the 1990 Industrial Relations Act when it balloted the men for strike action. As a result the picket was unofficial and neither the workers nor BATU enjoyed legal indemnity from damages. BATU subsequently received a bill of £480,000 from Crampton for losses incurred as a result of the DCU dispute.
It is understood BATU and Crampton have been involved in informal contacts to try to resolve their differences. BATU has told the company that it wants it to employ its members, who are bricklayers and carpenters, directly on its sites like other large contractors. However, it has said it will not negotiate directly with the company until it withdraws its legal actions.
Both sides declined to comment yesterday. Crampton's personnel manager, Mr Tom Moloney, said the matters were sub judice. BATU's Dublin regional organiser, Mr Denis Farrell, would only confirm that direct labour was the central issue in both disputes as far as the union was concerned.
The Building Workers Against the Black Economy group has been set up by building workers from a number of unions and says it is not affiliated to any of them. It says that the Industrial Relations Act is being used "to prevent workers from exercising their right to strike" and that pickets will be resumed on both sites if the injunctions are maintained.