INTERNATIONAL SCREWJOB ON THE GOLDEN EARS BRIDGE – German contractor stiffs, then fires, 80 Serbian ironworkers on British Columbia bridge – and now Canadian General Contractor refuses to pay them

from the VANCOUVER SUN:

 

Company fired, workers unpaid Contractor on Golden Ears Bridge is in tax trouble as project hits ‘a bump in the road’   Kelly Sinoski Vancouver Sun Thursday, September 25, 2008 CREDIT: Mark van Manen, Vancouver Sun files Tugboat gets a good view of the new Golden Ears Bridge. The project hit some rough water this week. Eighty foreign workers on the $800-million Golden Ears Bridge project were off the job Wednesday after not being paid for the past two weeks. The Construction Specialized Workers’ Union said subcontractor Baulex Projects, which hired the workers, told them Tuesday it couldn’t pay them because its bank accounts had been frozen by Revenue Canada when it failed to remit its taxes. But a representative of the joint venture building the bridge said Baulex had been fired from the job on Monday because of substandard work. “They weren’t performing so the contract was terminated this week,” said Ian McLeod, of the Golden Crossing Group, which speaks for the joint venture. “Work is continuing. It’s going to [require] some reorganization on our part to fill that gap, but we have other workers and companies. It’s a little bump in the road.” The bridge, which will connect Langley and Maple Ridge, is expected to be completed by next summer. TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said the project is on schedule. Meanwhile, the union is trying to get German-based Bilfinger Berger, which is part of the joint venture managing and designing the bridge project, to put the workers on its direct payroll. Otherwise, the workers, most of whom are from Serbia, will have to return home. “I hope Bilfinger Berger will do the right thing and bring these workers onto the payroll,” said union spokesman John Lynn. “There’s no money in the bank and these workers don’t have any support here.” But McLeod said the workers were hired by Baulex and their work permits may not be transferable to Bilfinger. “The joint venture was never the employer of these workers,” he said. “We don’t keep track of whether they were paid or not.” This is the second local construction headache this year for Bilfinger, which was fired by Metro Vancouver from the $100-million Seymour-Capilano Filtration project earlier this year. ksinoski@vancouversun.com © The Vancouver Sun 2008