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

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will focus heavily on employment standards when he outline’s the Government’s priorities for a new social partnership deal, at the start of formal talks this afternoon.

The Labour Party will today publish proposals to prevent another Irish Ferries-style industrial relations controversy.

THE spectacle of controversial Turkish firm Gama continuing to enjoy the largesse of the Irish Government through lucrative contracts is perplexing.

CONTROVERSIAL construction firm Gama is facing a class action lawsuit in Turkey as more than 80 former workers prepare to sue for being underpaid while working in Ireland.

The number of checks to ensure workers are being treated fairly have almost halved in the last four years, it emerged today.

The number of workplace inspections has almost halved over the past four years, it emerged today.

THOUSANDS of workers will today march on the Dáil demanding Government action to improve employment rights as the issue continues to threaten the entire social partnership process.

THE Government has been urged to place a temporary block on awarding contracts to construction firm Gama until all investigations into the company have been completed.

PEOPLE with complaints about bouncers and other security personnel will be able to go directly to a private security watchdog under a new licensing system announced yesterday.

Labour Affairs Minister Tony Killeen has welcomed the outcome of court hearings in which four employers were prosecuted for breaches of the Protection of Young Persons (Employment) Act.

NEW protections for migrant workers will prevent the type of exploitation that occurred with Turkish Gama workers happening again, Enterprise and Employment Minister Micheál Martin said yesterday.

THE month-long dispute between multi-national construction firm Gama and hundreds of employees entered a crucial phase yesterday with the intervention of the Labour Relations Commission (LRC).

A REPORT into allegations that construction firm Gama underpaid hundreds of migrant workers is to be forwarded to the Garda Fraud Squad and the Revenue Commissioners.

The Turkish construction firm Gama was today granted a temporary injunction to prevent the publication of a Labour Inspectorate report into the treatment of its workers.

Michael O’Farrell, Political Reporter

THE Turkish company accused of wage fraud and underpaying workers admitted to Government inspectors in February that it was not recording how many hours its employees work.

THE company at the centre of a labour scandal at Dublin's Port Tunnel is not complying with labour laws two months after the Irish Examiner revealed Polish staff were being paid half that of Irish workers.

ALMOST 700 Gama workers have received an unexpected windfall of up to €20 million in lost wages from bank accounts in the Netherlands.

Enterprise Minister Micheal Martin has told the Seanad that he will be giving a report on the treatment of Turkish workers by the Gama construction firm to the Gardaí and the Revenue Commissioners.

GAMA employees yesterday demanded that the Government take up the issue of previously unknown Dutch bank accounts in workers’ names with the Dutch Government and Central Bank.

HUNDREDS of Gama employees from Dublin and Clare yesterday stepped up protests against the company by demonstrating outside the firm’s largest construction project in Galway.

HUNDREDS of angry Gama workers are today planning to target the company’s largest construction project, a Galway power station being built for the ESB in Tynagh.

THE multinational construction firm accused of stealing millions from workers through underpayments is shortlisted to build two major roads projects for the National Roads Authority (NRA).

WHEN Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins first made sensational Dáil allegations of migrant labour abuse against Turkish construction firm Gama on February 9, Ceann Comhairle Rory O’Hanlon interjected.

MULTINATIONAL construction firm Gama was yesterday accused of stealing millions of euro from staff each month by underpaying hundreds of Turkish workers employed on numerous State projects.

IT will be later this week before Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin receives the report on migrant labour at Turkish company Gama, which has worked on some of the State’s largest infrastructural projects.

A report into a Turkish construction firm which underpaid migrant workers is to be handed to the Government in the coming days, it emerged tonight.

TURKISH construction firm Gama will have to pull out of Ireland if a Government investigation backs up serious underpayment allegations, a company representative said last night.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin has suspended the issuing of new work permits to GAMA Construction.

THE Turkish builders of the Ballincollig and Ennis bypasses, accused yesterday of serious abuse of migrant workers, have been cleared of wrongdoing in previous investigations into its employment practices.

The Government’s Labour Inspectorate is reportedly investigating more than 300 cases of suspected exploitation and mistreatment of workers this year, the majority involving foreign immigrants.

A FIRM that worked on the Dublin Port Tunnel project is under investigation by the Government after non-national workers complained of inadequate pay.

UNION representatives have called for greater resources to be given to enforcers of the minimum wage in advance of a 6% increase due to apply from October. The minimum wage was first introduced in April 2000 as part of the PPF and the latest increase to 6.35 per hour, flagged over two years ago, will come into effect on October 1.