Re: Five Bricklayers sacked for complaining about Asbestos Hazards (and asking for Holiday Pay) when working for Avondale sub-contractors on the Laings Admiralty Arch Site, Trafalgar Square.

  It is sometimes difficult for non-h&s specialists to understand what it is like for the ordinary working person to complain about a workplace hazard.

  Despite the evidence given to your committee, and recently published. Yesterday, I with other trade unionists and members of the Construction Safety Campaign (CSC) and Jeremy Corbyn MP, supported the above workers who have been demonstrating outside the above site since they were sacked five days ago.

  What were they sacked for?

  Complaining about asbestos, which they had been working around for months, and other hazards (eg electrical) on site! Apparently, the HSE have now issued two Prohibition Notices on the site, but only after they were called in by the workers' union, UCATT.

  Why should workers lose their jobs, and money, for complaining about justified health and safety offences? There is a "climate of fear" on most building sites, and that is why the accident and ill-health is so high.

  You and the members of your committee should take a 10-minute walk from the House of Commons and talk to these sacked building workers to hear what it is like to complain about health and safety issues and how one of the largest building companies, Laings, treats its sub-contract workforce.

  They are expendable, and receive no protection from the "whistle-blowing" laws that are supposed to protect them!