Minister hits out at firms underpaying workers

The system for checking labour laws in Ireland needs to be changed, it emerged today.

Micheál Martin, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said the Labour Inspectorate could never be in every workplacen or on every worksite at one time and that collective responsibility from all parties was needed.

The minister was speaking following revelations that Polish company ZRE Katowicz (Ireland) Construction Limited was paying its workers below the minimum wage on the ESB Moneypoint power station project.

Its 70 workers were taking home as little as €5.20 an hour for their work on refurbishing the power station in Co Clare. The shortfall, discovered during an internal audit by ESB, was made public this week by the the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU).

“It is unacceptable that companies think they can still do this sort of thing in Ireland,” said Mr Martin.

“The fact of the matter is irrespective of what happened subsequently, a Polish company did pay below the going rate and below the agreed registered rate. That is a breach of the law and a breach of Irish labour law and the Labour Inspectorate is investigating the full situation.”

Mr Martin said he was disappointed that ESB never reported the matter to officials when they became aware of the situation in January and that every step had to be taken to resolve the matter and repair the damage that had been done, including recompensing workers.

He said following similar high profile incidents, companies should be “very well aware of the law and the consequences”, adding that compliance cannot undermine competitiveness in the Irish economy.

Last year, GAMA Ireland agreed to compensate its workers after it emerged that wages owed to them had been deposited in Dutch bank accounts.

“The Labour Inspectorate should have been alerted to it. Maybe something is needed to drive home to people the consequences of breaching Irish labour law are very serious indeed,” he told RTÉ radio.

“Given the fact that there is significant subcontracting going on, the responsibility should lie with the primary company that is giving out the contract to make sure that Irish labour law is being applied down the line.

“It is in the interest of trade unions and employers to have a good compliance system. The inspectorate does visits sites but the system does need to be changed."