Construction union UCATT has reacted with disappointment to the Government's announcement that migrant workers from Romania and Bulgaria will continue to be barred from being directly employed.

Since Romania and Bulgaria's entry into the European Union in 2007, their citizens have had the right to enter the UK but have only been entitled to work on a self-employed basis.

UCATT have consistently argued that this makes workers highly vulnerable to exploitation, especially in the casualised construction industry. Unscrupulous employers and gangmasters have been able to use the worker's lack of employment rights to pay wages far below normal rates of pay in the industry.

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UCATT recently gave evidence to the Migration Advisory Committee calling for the ban on direct employment to be lifted, in order to end the exploitation currently experienced by Romanian and Bulgarian workers.

Alan Ritchie, General Secretary of construction union UCATT, said: "We believe that all workers doing the same job should receive the same rate of pay, regardless of where they come from. Many Romanians and Bulgarians are already working in the construction industry, the legality of their work under the current rules is, at best, a grey area.

"I am disappointed that the Government has decided not to grant these workers full employment rights. Sadly, that will mean that workers will continue to be exploited."

(CD/KMcA)