CONSTRUCTION workers lobbied councillors in Leeds yesterday demanding that 500 workers employed to build a new power station are paid a proper rate.

Members of unions Unite and GMB say the council should use its planning powers to insist that the waste-to-energy power station employs workers under a national agreement — not using cheap labour.

The power station is to be built at Skelton Grange by international corporation Hitachi Zosen Inova, based in Japan.

It is the 14th of its kind to be built in Britain by the firm, of which 11 have been built using low-paid labour, ignoring the national agreement for the engineering industry between employers and unions.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Leeds council and its councillors have to step up to the plate and tell the company in no uncertain terms that it must play by the rules and follow the agreement.”

GMB national officer for construction Charlotte Childs said: “GMB members and the national agreement have served the construction industry well. 

“Union jobs are safer, better paid and the buildings well built. It makes sense to adopt the national agreement to get this project built.”

Leeds City Council leader James Lewis said the council “fully supports” GMB and Unite in their aims, but had no legal powers over working conditions on the site because it was a private venture not related to the council.