They have launched the ‘Play by the rules’ campaign in a bid to police industrial relations agreements on site.

Contractors are being accused of “cherry picking” the parts of the JIB agreement which suit them and paying the wrong rates while encouraging the widespread use of agency labour.

Bernard McAulay, Unite national officer said: “Unite will no longer stand by and accept some employers ignoring the rules that protect our members.

“In particular, we will challenge employers who are not complying with the rules around agency labour.

“The agreements state quite clearly that employers should make every effort to offer jobs on a directly employed basis and it is unacceptable that employers are flouting this and bringing insecurity and casualisation to the industry.”

The launch of the campaign follows a disagreement during pay talks with the ECA and SELECT who are stalling on entering into negotiations on the JIB/SJIB.

Both the ECA and SELECT are refusing to meet with the Unite negotiating team.