Foreign construction workers being laid off in large numbers

[kerrynorth]

In tomorrow's SBP. The construction trade union BATU says that contractors are laying off foreign workers in large numbers ahead of Irish workers. BATU say that foreign workers are laid off because they easier to layoff - language difficulties mean that they are less likely to known and assert employment rights as well as complain unlike the Irish and contractors are laying off non-nationals before they acquire statutory employment rights then they secure others through employment agencies. BATU cite examples of Romanians laid off after returning from 2 weeks back home and others who got their P45 in the post without statutory notice and redundancy payments.

[RashersTierney]

People at the bottom of the heap get screwed first. Nothing new there. No doubt the news that 'large numbers' of workers are being let go will sound sweet in some ears.

[wombat]

I'd take what BATU says with a pinch of salt, most of the foreign workers are employed through agencies so they will have few statutory rights. Its hard to measure how much of a downturn there is, my guess is that existing projects will be completed and builders will sit on their profits for a few months, possibly until spring.

[factual]

Sounds as though there could be a bit of journalist exaggeration going on.

Not yet convinced that any of this slowdown is necessarily going to matter, if anything construction is overrepresented in our economy and we have been overheating generally as an economy so that a negative shock to the construction sector is perhaps a useful corrective?

[harvey]

Well, KN, there's a long-standing union tradition if redundancies are on the cards: Last in, first out.

[wombat]

Sounds as though there could be a bit of journalist exaggeration going on.

Not yet convinced that any of this slowdown is necessarily going to matter, if anything construction is overrepresented in our economy and we have been overheating generally as an economy so that a negative shock to the construction sector is perhaps a useful corrective?

Problem is, we don't know where the knock on will end - all the breakfast rolls are the obvious, will the shops attached to service stations go, the off licences catering to foreign workers, suspect it will be wider than we think.

[Insider2007]

Sounds as though there could be a bit of journalist exaggeration going on.

Not yet convinced that any of this slowdown is necessarily going to matter, if anything construction is overrepresented in our economy and we have been overheating generally as an economy so that a negative shock to the construction sector is perhaps a useful corrective?

I was speaking to someone recently who is a planner in a local authority. They say the scale of the downturn is very noticeable. The number of planning permissions for new estates is down, but more strikingly, where builders were planning a phased development, they are not seeking permission for Phase 2, and in cases he has come across slashed the number of houses in Phase 1. I as struck by just how much of a townturn he was describing. In his office three years ago they struggled to keep up with planning permissions. Now, not merely is there no struggle. He said that at one stage having cleared a (small) backlog they found that they had nothing to do in the office for two days. He has been working for 6 years in local government at the height of the Celtic Tiger and had never experienced a situation where they could even keep up to date with the demand, much less find that they had no work.

[factual]

Sounds as though there could be a bit of journalist exaggeration going on.

Not yet convinced that any of this slowdown is necessarily going to matter, if anything construction is overrepresented in our economy and we have been overheating generally as an economy so that a negative shock to the construction sector is perhaps a useful corrective?

I was speaking to someone recently who is a planner in a local authority. They say the scale of the downturn is very noticeable. The number of planning permissions for new estates is down, but more strikingly, where builders were planning a phased development, they are not seeking permission for Phase 2, and in cases he has come across slashed the number of houses in Phase 1. I as struck by just how much of a townturn he was describing. In his office three years ago they struggled to keep up with planning permissions. Now, not merely is there no struggle. He said that at one stage having cleared a (small) backlog they found that they had nothing to do in the office for two days. He has been working for 6 years in local government at the height of the Celtic Tiger and had never experienced a situation where they could even keep up to date with the demand, much less find that they had no work.

Well that is just one office in one region for one sector of the economy (construction) which we are already overdependent on. Our economy is overheating with inflationary pressures flowing from that. A negative shock in construction might not be too serious - the % of folks employed in construction was much greater than other advanced economies and was due to face a period of relative decline. Not yet convinced that it would have much adverse knowk on effect on our economy, and might be a useful corrective to our overheating economy (remember our growth rate this year is 6% - much higher than in other advanced economies).

[factual]

In tomorrow's SBP. The construction trade union BATU says that contractors are laying off foreign workers in large numbers ahead of Irish workers. BATU say that foreign workers are laid off because they easier to layoff - language difficulties mean that they are less likely to known and assert employment rights as well as complain unlike the Irish and contractors are laying off non-nationals before they acquire statutory employment rights then they secure others through employment agencies. BATU cite examples of Romanians laid off after returning from 2 weeks back home and others who got their P45 in the post without statutory notice and redundancy payments.

I couldn't find this in the online version.

[Insider2007]

Sounds as though there could be a bit of journalist exaggeration going on.

Not yet convinced that any of this slowdown is necessarily going to matter, if anything construction is overrepresented in our economy and we have been overheating generally as an economy so that a negative shock to the construction sector is perhaps a useful corrective?

I was speaking to someone recently who is a planner in a local authority. They say the scale of the downturn is very noticeable. The number of planning permissions for new estates is down, but more strikingly, where builders were planning a phased development, they are not seeking permission for Phase 2, and in cases he has come across slashed the number of houses in Phase 1. I as struck by just how much of a townturn he was describing. In his office three years ago they struggled to keep up with planning permissions. Now, not merely is there no struggle. He said that at one stage having cleared a (small) backlog they found that they had nothing to do in the office for two days. He has been working for 6 years in local government at the height of the Celtic Tiger and had never experienced a situation where they could even keep up to date with the demand, much less find that they had no work.

Well that is just one office in one region for one sector of the economy (construction) which we are already overdependent on. Our economy is overheating with inflationary pressures flowing from that. A negative shock in construction might not be too serious - the % of folks employed in construction was much greater than other advanced economies and was due to face a period of relative decline. Not yet convinced that it would have much adverse knowk on effect on our economy, and might be a useful corrective to our overheating economy (remember our growth rate this year is 6% - much higher than in other advanced economies).

It is actually one of the biggest offices in one of the biggest local authorities in the state, Fingal. And he has heard similar reports from colleagues he knows in the planning area all around the country.