The chairman of a newly-formed construction recruitment sector group is urging recruiters to help end the exploitation of migrants working in the industry as a step to providing a sustainable employment legacy for London above and beyond the 2012 Olympics.

At the launch of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation Construction Sector Group and its Sustainable Employment Legacy Forum (SELF), chairman Trevor Rees called on recruiters to take the lead now to promote health and safety on work sites and address skills shortages to ensure a lasting legacy of sustained employment in the sector.

The need is particularly great in London's poorer communities, he said.

“This is an incredible time for the construction industry,” said Rees, speaking at the group's launch on HMS Belfast in London.

“We must focus our energy and voice to ensure that we are at the top table”, he said, in order to help plan and make decisions on issues that affect construction employment. He offered Heathrow Airport's new Terminal 5 as an example of a major project in which agencies had not been consulted.

And with £100bn of construction planned in London over the next 20 years, and £10bn in station regeneration work planned by Network Rail, the Olympics are by no means the only game in town for forward-looking recruiters working in the building sector.

But to maximise the opportunities on offer, the SELF initiative was created to address five key points: the early introduction of new workers into the sector, apprenticeships, diversity, skills transfer and migrant labour.

For example, ensuring that migrant workers are “professionally managed” and that health and safety regulations protecting workers are followed are points “we want to focus on”, Rees said.

“We have to make sure people are ready and safe to work. Professional management is our responsibility. We need to ensure the procurement and delivery of an appropriate, safe and legal workforce.”

Like virtually every sector, construction suffers from a shortage of candidates, and professional services company KPMG reports a particular shortage of project managers in the field.

However, project management skills, as well as the skills of estimators, buyers and planners, can successfully transfer from sectors such as automotive, aeronautical and retail, Rees said.

“We must recruit from every possible source,” he urged.