CONSTRUCTION workers are campaigning against the use of agency labour on a building site at Glasgow University.

The Unite members held a demonstration at the campus today after Multiplex was appointed as the main contractor on the university’s campus development programme.

Workers are urging the university’s principal Anton Muscatelli not to allow human rights to be “undermined on his doorstep.”

The construction project, a huge source of employment for parts of Glasgow and the surrounding areas, is worth £298 million.

It is currently the largest ongoing construction job in Scotland and is expected to run until 2023.

But workers have criticised Multiplex for using agency recruitment companies to supply labour for the site.

They argue that this absolves the contractor of any social responsibility and denies workers the benefits of direct employment.

Concerns were also expressed about Multiplex’s suitability for such a high-profile role.

The Australian firm was contracted to build the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh.

But the hospital remains unopened due to serious concerns over its poor infrastructure.

Unison official Tom Waterson warned that the hospital may have to be “ripped down.”

Unite rank and file chairman Jim Harte urged Mr Muscatelli to meet workers and hear their concerns.

He said: “When [Professor Muscatelli] welcomed Nicola Sturgeon to Glasgow University to address the annual Jimmy Reid Memorial Lecture in November 2015, the theme was Workers’ Rights are Human Rights.

“The First Minister’s speech that evening addressed many of the issues that underpinned Jimmy Reid’s own thinking — that society should be based on equality and social justice, that people should have the democratic power to influence their workplace and social institutions and that quality of life should be at the forefront of political debate and not an afterthought.

“It is therefore ironic that four years later, within one of the largest construction projects in Scotland … those very basic principles are being undermined on the professor’s very own doorstep.”

Glasgow University had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to press.

The university has described the development programme as “a £1 billion investment in our estate over 10 years to expand our world-class campus and facilities.”