Staythorpe Walkout

Construction workers at the Staythorpe power station in Nottinghamshire have staged an unofficial walkout after an alleged health and safety breach.

Upto 500 workers staged a demonstration at the plant near Newark and blocked nearby roads after saying that some scaffolding had been interfered with.

A spokesman for Alstom the main contractor on the site said the walkout stemmed from disagreements between subcontractors over whether or not a scaffold bar had been temporarily removed in order for one of them to complete a piece of work.

"An independent assessment of the allegations found that there was no conclusive evidence that this took place and a reconstruction of the alleged events showed that the work could in fact be done without removing any scaffolding," the Alstom representative added.

However Unite's national officer Tommy Hardacre said a "very serious" breach of health and safety had taken place at Staythorpe.

"Unite is currently working to resolve the matter to ensure there is not a reoccurrence of the breach and to get a return to work," he said.