Thanks to Eileen and Liz for the recent excellent event and presentation on apprentices, does any one want to find out more about the cost and advantages on taking on an apprentice?Please contact Construction Skills, or talk to CE Hants.

Is the cost of procurement adding to the quality and cost of our industry, or is it narrowing down the field to become uncompetitive, where only those that can afford to take part get involved? Lengthy procurment dialogue processes are seeing the reduction in competition, as the number of companies that can afford to get involved in procrastinated negotiations is growing ever shorter, this is a situation where only the ‘lawyers’, and sometimes ‘lenders’ will win.

I see that CE Hampshire are putting on an event to discuss procurement next month, and I think it would be good to have an interesting debate before hand.

Submitted by a Club Member

Well belts are tighter in more than one sense following this Christmas break. How do you think the construction industry will fair in 2011, the start of a new decade? Are you optimistic that private industry will grow and pull the country forward or do you think that Government cuts and tax rises will have a damaging effect? And how do you think the 2.5% rise in VAT, which comes into affect today, will have an impact on the Construction Industry? It would be great to hear your opinions.

Wishing you a Happy & Prosperous New Year from all at Constructing Excellence Hampshire Club.

Having recently attended a couple of presentations recently that was the nagging question in the back of my mind, is the British Construction Industry so far behind the rest of the developed world?

Not having any experience of the construction industry outside the UK, where I have worked most of my adult life, I was told this week that in Ultra High Performance Energy saving construction, Passivhaus, the UK has but a handful of certificated projects whereas the Germans, Dutch, Austrians and many other central European countries have many and varied projects that they have been perfecting for years. I was also told the UK simply does not have the trained skilled people at this time to develop this type of building on a significant scale, yet in Austria they were building communal swimming pools to this standard and winning design awards for it.

In a presentation on Lean Contracting at the Constructing Excellence Hampshire Club I discovered that the Japanese Construction Industry, whilst comparable in size to the UK has advanced management techniques, zero defect performance and generally a far higher standing in society than the UK Construction Industry does here.

Finding out about the FITS scheme it appears that again the UK is years behind the rest of Europe with regards to the development and implementation of renewable energy technology. The Germans and Spanish have embraced renewable energy and rolled out massive construction projects, whilst here in the UK we seem to have a few wind farms off the east coast and the odd token wind turbine on the canopies of petrol forecourts.

So what the factors that make the UK Construction Industry appear to be so far behind?
Lack of promotion as a professional industry in early education?
Lack of Government investment?
Poor or inappropriate training in Colleges and Universities?
A general scepticism and mistrust of new technologies or work practices?
An unwillingness to embrace change or fear of doing things differently?

All of the above?

It would be great to hear your view on this topic.

In a recent case, the Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an unfettered right of substitution in a contract is fatal to worker status. The case involved a dentist, but will be particularly relevant to those working in the construction sector.

The dentist, Dr Sultan-Darmon, entered into a contract with Community Dental Centres (the Centre) to provide dental services.

It was agreed that the dentist was not an “employee” but he argued that he was a “worker” and so entitled to pursue a claim for unlawful deductions from wages. The Centre argued that the dentist was a self-employed sub-contractor.

The dentist entered into a contract with the Centre which was described as a “licence agreement and contract for service” and specifically stated that his status was a self employed independent contractor. The contract also provided that if the dentist failed to provide his services for a period of more than five days for any reason (other than in the case of holiday) he would have to arrange for a locum to act on his behalf who would be paid by him. In fact, the dentist had never relied on that provision to engage a locum, although other dentists on similar terms had done so.

The EAT held that this was an unfettered right given to the dentist to appoint a substitute. He was not obliged to perform personally any work or services and could not, therefore, be a worker.

The case reinforces the importance of having carefully drafted contracts in place. However, it is also important to remember that all the circumstances of the case will be considered by a Tribunal when looking at worker status, including how the services are in fact provided.

For further information, please contact Bridget Wood (http://www.bllaw.co.uk/services_for_businesses/employment/key_contacts/bridget_wood/bridget_wood.aspx) or Alexandra Robinson (http://www.bllaw.co.uk/services_for_businesses/employment/our_team/alexandra_robinson/alexandra_robinson.aspx), in Blake Lapthorn’s Employment team

Author Katryn Gore - Posted by G. Alexander

At a recent committee meeting for Constructing Excellence Hampshire Club it was suggested that a regular Blog would be an interesting addition to the Club Website. The club belongs to its members and so we invite all the members of CE Hants to drop in and have a read of the blogs and even pass the odd comment whilst sipping a coffee (or other beverage of choice) and browsing our site.

If you are a member and feel that you have a nugget of best practice gold that you are willing to share with the other members, please feel free to submit it and we will do our best to publish it for you. Even if you have had a bad day want to have a rant about poor practices in the construction industry in the hope that others may be interested or able to help please feel free.

Please bookmark the site and visit us again soon as each member of the committee will be posting a blog to provide you with insights into the industry from all perspectives including clients, contractors, professionals, educators or sub contractors.

We look forward to your feedback.

Graham Alexander - Club Treasurer

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