THERE have been more protests outside a £250m energy site over claim foreign workers are receiving unequel pay.

About 300 trade unionists demonstrated outside Sita Sembcorp UK’s waste to energy plant currently being built at Wilton, near Redcar.

The Unite union says Sita has refused to respond to information requests, including updates on a man said to have required hospital treatment for a hand injury.

It also alleges that requests to see contractor numbers and wages as well as an interpreter for foreign staff have been declined.

There have been several previous protests at the site by trade unionists worried that workers from Bulgaria and Poland are not being paid the same rate as British workers - something Sita denies.

Speaking after Thursday's protest, Unite regional organiser, Steve Cason, said at least one sub-contractor had been caught paying below the odds for foreign workers and several attempts to given details of a wage audit had so far come to nothing.

Sita said that pay is actually equal or above national agreements and the accident, the first after hundreds of hours of work, was reported to the Health and Safety Executive.

A spokesman said: “Continued unfounded allegations about cheap foreign labour, or workers’ terms and conditions, do nothing to change the fact all workers, irrespective of their nationality, have rates of pay equivalent to or higher than each of the unions’ relevant national agreements.

“Agreement was also reached with unions and contractors in February to allow union access to the site to discuss pay and working conditions with staff, with interpreters provided by our principal contractor.”

The waste plant will create about 50 permanent jobs when work starts late next year. The energy site will convert hundreds of thousands of tonnes of household waste from Merseyside into electricity and steam.