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Phil Willis is desperate for work. A steel erecter from Kent, he has been in the industry for more than 40 years but has been unemployed since September 2007. Three weeks ago, the 59-year-old applied to work on the construction of E.ON and Alstom鈥檚 拢504m gas-fired combined heat and power station on the Isle of Grain, despite allegations that the project was not recruiting UK labour. He has heard nothing back. 鈥淭here just aren鈥檛 any other jobs,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e feel we should have a slice of the work we have been doing for decades.鈥�

Willis is one of the 60 unemployed labourers who gathered under the banner of the Unite union at Alstom鈥檚 London headquarters on 5 February following a week of strikes that stretched from Scotland to Plymouth, demanding that the French developer, its subcontractors Remak and ZRE, and other foreign firms in charge of similar scale projects, 鈥渟top excluding British workers鈥� in favour of their established European supply chains.

The campaign appeared to secure an important victory last week when Gordon Brown endorsed 鈥済uiding principles鈥� put forward by the Engineering Construction Industry Association (ECIA) that ask contractors to consider whether there are competent workers available locally (see box). But with nothing enshrined in law, will mere guidelines be enough to stop strikes spreading to more sites as the industry鈥檚 70,000 jobless workers seek reassurance they are not being undercut by foreign counterparts?

Warning signs seem to be emerging already. As 好色先生TV went to press on Wednesday, Unite was planning a protest outside the House of Commons, with joint general secretary Derek Simpson delivering a petition to 10 Downing Street. Further strikes were planned at the Isle of Grain and Staythorpe in Nottinghamshire, another power station site hit by the protests.

And with firms at the centre of the current dispute likely to be clients in the upcoming nuclear new-build programme, industry figures are saying the government should exert more pressure on them if some of the UK鈥檚 largest construction sites are not to face paralysis both now and in the future. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 have much confidence in protests stopping,鈥� says one strike organiser. 鈥淲e鈥檙e some way from change.鈥�

That the guidelines may not be taken seriously by firms is suggested by the fact that, despite the government鈥檚 fanfare over last week鈥檚 announcement, member firms were aware of them weeks before the strikes. Mike Hockey, managing director of the ECIA, says the guidelines were announced to the National Joint Council for the Engineering and Construction Industry in early January. 鈥淔irms knew they were coming, although the additional guidelines were only circulated last week,鈥� he says.

However, he remains confident that the measures will make a difference: 鈥淓arly indications are that they will be very well received. The guidelines will formalise what is already best practice among most of our members, and improve the minority that don鈥檛 perform at best practice levels.

But Neil Willoughby, the regional officer for Unite in Kent, the home of Alstom鈥檚 Isle of Grain power station, does not share this optimism. 鈥淚f these guidelines were announced in early January, then Alstom has shown already that they will not be addressing them,鈥� he says. 鈥淥ver 200 people have applied for a job at the Isle of Grain site, but have still heard nothing back.鈥�

An Alstom spokesperson said: 鈥淎ll of Alstom鈥檚 construction sites for power stations strictly adhere to 鈥� the recently updated guidelines from the ECIA.

鈥淲e have ensured that our non-UK subcontractors have committed to considering UK workers on an equal and fair basis, in the event that they require additional manpower.鈥�

Yet Unite believes that if tougher measures are not put in place, the current crop of power stations and the forthcoming nuclear programme, which has attracted interest from continental energy giants such as EDF and Alstom, could end up excluding UK workers almost entirely.

The concern that unions have over the agreement, apart from its voluntary nature, is that the ECIA lacks the capacity to carry out sufficient checks on firms that want to become members. This means that some may not have as strong a background on worker conditions as membership of the organisation is meant to imply. One union source contends that at several of the sites the checks the ECIA said they would carry out turned out to be ineffective. 鈥淭hey need to bring in more meaningful checks, so we can ensure companies are bona fide.鈥�

A further, if slightly ironic, problem is that lawyers are warning that employers who follow the guidelines too stringently could end up breaching the 1976 Race Relations Act. 鈥淚f an employer says he is only going to employ people from the local area, and he uses this as his sole principle way of recruiting people, he runs the risk of excluding others on the grounds of race or nationality,鈥� says Alex Lock, partner of the employment group at law firm Beachcroft.

So what else could be done, by industry or government, to convince workers that they are not being put at an unfair disadvantage?

Willis suggests that joint council meetings to discuss site issues should be held twice a month instead of once, as stated in the National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry. But ultimately, he fears the ECIA is still too weak: 鈥淲e need actual government legislation if workers are to believe they鈥檙e being taken seriously.鈥�

Another potential solution could be reform of the EU鈥檚 Posted Workers Directive, which protects workers from one EU country who are employed by a company to carry out work in another. The directive, currently under review after pressure from some states concerned with unemployment in their local workforce, dictates that posted workers are employed under the terms of the country in which they work, rather than local agreements. As a result, foreign labourers often work for the UK minimum wage, sometimes well below market rates, thereby undercutting their UK counterparts. Brown has pledged to consider the results of the review.

Back at the London demonstration, Willis, for one, says he will continue to campaign until he gets a job. He says the campaign is not about xenophobia, but about a 鈥渓evel playing field on wages and jobs鈥�. 鈥淚f something鈥檚 not done, it will continue to get worse,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檒l lose our job skills and apprentices. It will erode the industry.鈥�