Olympic firms fail to hire in Stratford

FIRMS working on the London Olympics have privately admitted that they will not be able to meet their pre-recession pledge to employ local workers.

Major contractors on the £9.3billion project have been under pressure to recruit from the Stratford area. But sources have told the Standard that the sudden downturn has meant construction firms have sent existing workers to the 2012 site rather than lay them off.

One contractor, defying a gagging order on their dealings with the Olympic Delivery Authority, said: "We had intended to hire locally but the recession has meant so many building projects have been halted since we made these pledges that we are sending our existing staff to the Olympic site.

"Our intentions were good but the reality has proved different."

Last week an employee at a Stratford job centre said there had been no advertised vacancies to work on the £500million Olympic stadium, which employs about 500 people.

The ODA, which is responsible for recruitment, has stressed its commitment to employing workers from the five host Olympic boroughs although it has not set a quota.

Figures obtained by the Standard under the Freedom of Information Act showed that 29 per cent of the 3,046 workers on the Olympic Park in December were foreign, with 14 per cent of the overall total from non-EU countries.

Labour MP for Dagenham, John Cruddas, has warned that the Olympics could be a target for protests if it did not boost the number of local workers. He said: "If the Government is planning big infrastructure projects to keep the economy moving - including the Olympics - this needs to be resolved now, because it is in the construction and engineering sectors where these issues are most acute.