Laing O'Rourke has landed a managing contract to complete the troubled Royal Liverpool hospital project.

The project stalled in January 2018 following the collapse of PFI contractor Carillion, and is hoped to restart as early as next month.

UK construction union Unite has raised concerns over the appointment of Laing O'Rourke.

Laing O'Rourke was previously responsible for building the new Alder Hey hospital in Liverpool where a hearing into its practices was held by the Scottish affairs select committee as part of its inquiry into blacklisting.

Following the announcement of Laing O'Rourke's appointment, Unite will now apply greater pressure to the client, the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University NHS Trust, to establish clear rules that will ensure proper union recognition and fair treatment of the workforce.


Unite have already written to Adrian Kehoe, the trust's chief executive, seeking guarantees that his organisation will ensure contractors:

• Adhere to national industrial agreements that govern pay and conditions

• Use local labour and suppliers

• Workers are directly employed (not employed under a form of bogus self-employment)

• Exploitative forms of employment such as umbrella companies are outlawed

• Trade unions are recognised and are given proper access to the workforce.

Unite regional officer Colin Carr said: "Unite is committed to ensuring that the Royal Liverpool hospital is completed as quickly as possible but that must not be at the expense of workers rights or to the detriment of their health and safety.

"Providing there is clear leadership from the Trust, Unite looks forward to working together with Laing O'Rourke to ensure that workers are properly treated and the mistakes made on previous hospital contracts in Liverpool are not repeated.

"However, given the battle there has been to get the project restarted and for it to become a directly funded public sector project with the cancellation of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), Unite will not stand idly by and allow construction workers on the Royal Liverpool to be exploited or for unions to be denied access."

A meeting to discuss Unite's concerns has been arranged for Tuesday 13 November.

The Royal Liverpool Hospital project is expected to be completed in 2020.

(CM/MH)