Hundreds of workers attended a jobs fair hoping to gain employment at a £250m waste-to-energy plant.
The aim of the event was to recruit around 100 people - half to build the second phase of construction of the SITA Sembcorp facility at Wilton and others to fill the permanent staff needed to operate the site.
Work is well under way on the project, which will convert household waste into sufficent green electricity to power 63,000 homes, and it is expected to open in 2016.
The recruitment fair at Redcar and Cleveland College opened at 10am had already seen 220 workers pass through the doors by noon.
Among them was Joel Vernon, 21, from Saltburn said: “I work in foundry, but I’m only employed up until the end of the month, I’m looking for a permanent job within the industry.”
“Today is good, it provides opportunities.”
Rudy Iraediai, 29, originally from Nigeria, now living in Middlesbrough, works in fabrication and construction.
“I’ve been unemployed since October and it’s really difficult to find a job,” he said.
And Jed Gray, 34, who lives in Middlesbrough is a rigger by trade and is looking for a job in construction.
“I’m currently employed but I’m looking for a job where I can be with my family, I’m working away at the minute,” he said.
“Events like this are really good, although people do tend to think jobs are handed to people on a plate.”
Wilton was chosen as the site for the facility after the Merseyside Waste Disposal Authority struggled to find a ‘suitable site with planning consent’ locally - and awarded the £1.2bn contract to take the county’s household waste.
Concerns have been raised that SITA Sembcorp UK was recruiting predominantly from overseas and was not adhering to nationally agreed terms and conditions.
Unite and the GMB unions also organised a heated public meeting of over a hundred local workers who were concerned at the lack of opportunities and the possible undercutting of pay.
Anna Turley, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Redcar, wrote to the firm to find out what efforts have been made to hire local skills for the project and also challenged them on whether workers’ contracts menational agreements on pay and fair terms and conditions.
She said: “I am really pleased to see that Sita have listened to the strength of feeling from local construction workers and agreed to our request to host this jobs fair.
“I hope it brings real tangible results for local people. I know we have a highly skilled and motivated work force on Teesside and I want them to benefit from opportunities like this on their doorstep.”
Steve Cason, regional organiser for Unite said: “It is vital that we are giving opportunities to the next generation of construction workers through local investment and apprenticeships.”
And Micky Blench, regional organiser for the GMB said: “Our workforce feel that they are being undercut and missing out on jobs on their doorsteps and that Sita and its subcontractors have ignored the quality of skills in the region.
“I hope this jobs fair provides a number of opportunities for local workers, but I also hope it shows Sita that they have to do better on recruitment and terms and conditions when constructing major projects of this kind.”
SITA Sembcorp UK has denied that pay was a determining factor in the recruitment process.
Barry Walton from the firm said at the end of January they had 398 workers on-site.
“Of these, 257 were from the UK and 210 of those are from the local area,” he said.
“And of the 56 suppliers that are being used for this project, 30 are North-east based.”
He added that “no-one on site is paid less than the living wage” and all the workers in civil engineering are paid in line with the Construction Industry Joint Council Working Rule Agreement.
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