Construction union UCATT are warning workers that living on a construction site is "unacceptable".

UCATT issued the advice after it was revealed that six Latvian workers had been living in portakabins style accommodation on a Homes and Communities Agency owned site in Hood Street, Manchester.

Ren Davies, Acting Regional Secretary for UCATT North West, said: "Workers should never be asked to live on a construction site, it is likely to be both dangerous and with poor welfare facilities. Even in exceptional cases where accommodation is provided it must be entirely separate from the site where work is being undertaken.

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"The principal contractor on the site is Northern group. While agreeing to move the workers from the site, they also stated that the accommodation provided were very similar to that used by workers on the Olympic Park.

"However workers on the Olympic Park did not live on site and no form of temporary accommodation was provided for them. Instead workers lived at home or found lodgings throughout London."

The union is calling for the Gangmasters Licensing Act to be extended to the construction industry.

(CD/MH)