Construction workers demand unpaid entitlements and greater government accountability Construction workers march on Parliament House today. Picture: Andrew Dowdell Source: News Limited HUNDREDS of construction workers have rallied outside Parliament House demanding unpaid entitlements and more State Government accountability on public projects. Decked in their hi-vis clothes and some waving Eureka flags, about 400 construction workers gathered outside Parliament House on North Tce for the protest from 11.30am. CFMEU SA secretary Aaron Cartledge said workers on major State Government projects including the South Rd Superway, Adelaide Oval and new Royal Adelaide Hospital had been dudded of entitlements by contractors. "These workers have months of superannuation owed to them, long-service leave and huge amounts in lost wages," he said. How is this happening on major government jobs? Mr Cartledge said the union also had concerns regarding financial pressures and time frames on the projects leading to unsafe practices. He called on the State Government to have greater accountability regarding who it contracted for such projects and making sure it kept a watch to ensure contractors were paying employees all of their entitlements. "We want the government to have proper auditing procedures as part of the procurement process," he said. There are so many government authorities that have been involved in these projects where workers are getting ripped off. If a builder is seen to be rorting the system or has been behind some of these rorts that are going on, then they need to be struck off the next tender list. Minister for Infrastructure Tom Koutsantonis said there were legal avenues for the union if workers were being underpaid or entitlements weren't being paid. "Those legal recourses for their members are Fair Work Australia and the Industrial Relations Commission," he said. If anyone has not had their entitlements paid that's in breach of the law. But the reality is it's not for the Government to ensure that subcontractors are paying their superannuation; that is for the subcontractor ... if the members represented by the union aren't getting satisfaction the union should lodge appeals with Fair Work Australia and the Industrial Relations Commission. Mr Cartledge said if conditions in the sector continued to deteriorate, workers would be forced to put down their tools more often, putting the deadlines of some projects at risk. The only strong protest that they can make is withdrawing that labour and we intend to take this issue up on these jobs and endorse a zero-tolerance protocol where members check their funds and when their funds are behind or their wages aren't being paid, we pull those workers up until they are being paid. If they (contractors) are not behaving and force us into a situation to take industrial action then that will have an impact on the (project's) schedule.