Foreign workers being underpaid, survey shows

UNIONS presented politicians with proof yesterday of widespread foreign worker wage abuse by the Irish construction industry.

The Cork Building Group, an umbrella organisation representing 20,000 plumbers, bricklayers, electricians and plasterers across Munster, gathered wage slips proving that hundreds of foreign workers are being hired at a fraction of the agreed industry rates.

Some are being paid less than half the agreed €16.87 per hour Construction Industry Federation rate.

The abuse is keeping hundreds of Irish labourers out of work, union leaders said.

They called for legislation to allow for the prosecution of developers flouting the agreed rates.

The documents, gathered from building sites over the last nine months, also show that foreign workers are not being paid overtime, and that some workers are clocking up 75-hour weeks.

The evidence was presented to a cross-party delegation of local and national politicians in Cork yesterday.

It shows that in one case, an Eastern European worker who worked a 75-hour week received just €345.

Billy Curtin, secretary of the Cork Building Group, and secretary of the Cork branch of the plasterers’ union, said the documents prove beyond doubt that wage abuse is widespread.

“These foreign guys are desperate and these developers are treating them like dirt,” he said.