CONSTRUCTION workers on an £800m government road scheme protested this week against pay and conditions.

The workers are widening the A465 Head of the Valleys road between Brynmawr and Tredegar.

Building firm Carillion is delivering the project but staff have been forced to work via an umbrella payroll company based in Chester called Crest Plus.

UCATT, the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians, say the working arrangements can cost around £100 a week because they have to pay employers and workers’ National Insurance and can be paid the minimum wage and work on zero-hours contracts.

In addition, their holiday pay can be rolled up into their wage packet meaning they do not get paid when they take holidays or when the industry shuts down, like in the Christmas break.

The workers held a protest outside a depot on the A465 on the Rassau Industrial Estate in Ebbw Vale.

Nick Blundell, regional secretary of UCATT Wales and South West, said: “Workers are now struggling to make ends meet.

“Workers are given no choice, either they work via an umbrella company, or they don’t work at all. The government must step in and crackdown on this.”

UCATT said workers had been forced to work via umbrella companies since April when the government introduced new measures that saw workers paid via Pay-As-You-Earn or PAYE.

In an official statement, Carillion said that some agency employees working on the Head of the Valleys contract may have chosen to work via a PAYE system of which Crest is a provider.

UCATT is now calling on the Welsh Government to change their procurement rules so that umbrella companies are banned.

A Welsh Government spokesman said yesterday: “Carillion was appointed as contractors for the Heads of the Valleys Section Three project in March 2010, following an Official Journal of the European Union procurement process compliant with EU Directives and public procurement regulations.

The contract includes fair payment provisions designed to improve payment practices across the construction industry.”

A Crest Plus spokesman said the company had already made a comment to UCATT and would not look to make another.