The Engineering Construction Industry is critical to the success of the UK economy. The stakeholders in this industry construct and maintain vital projects such as power stations, oil and process plants and deliver other large scale infrastructure investments.

The means of managing labour relationships to ensure completions to time and budget has rested with the National Agreement for Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI) since 1981. At that time the Agreement was ground breaking, and throughout the period since it has enjoyed considerable success. Whilst it has evolved to meet a changing business and labour environment, the Agreement was subject to a large scale review which was completed in 2007.

That review and the new arrangements agreed by the employers and trades unions, party to this new Agreement has the full support of all those involved with Engineering Construction from employees to contractors and clients.

We are approaching a challenging period in our history with a significant number of new build projects to meet environmental targets and projected energy capacity gaps through FGD, new gas plant construction, clean coal plant and nuclear power stations. This Agreement is key to providing the stable framework and mechanisms necessary to ensure that those challenging engineering construction projects are delivered successfully.