Turkish firm ‘will have to pull out if pay claims are true’

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.

The company, which won numerous State projects including the Ennis and Ballincollig by-passes, yesterday admitted underpaying some of its 800 Turkish workers by 8% for a portion of last year.

The move follows allegations first levelled by Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins in the Dáil last month that Gama paid workers between €2 and €3 an hour.

Gama, which says it pays all employees at least €12.96 an hour, strenuously denies the allegations.

Nevertheless, an investigation by Government labour inspectors into the allegations is ongoing and this week saw inspectors visit several Gama premises.

However, the company yesterday acknowledged that an internal review had found “errors in the calculation of payments to expatriate employees in Ireland.”

According to a Gama statement, amounts of up to €3,500 plus interest have already been repaid to all affected workers.

Gama also confirmed that three staff members, one of them senior, had been suspended pending an internal investigation.

It said “other aspects of payment procedures for expatriate employees” had been examined resulting in a number of improvements being introduced.

However, Enterprise Minister Mícheál Martin moved immediately to suspend the issuing of work permits to Gama pending the outcome of the Government’s investigation.

“No new work permits have issued to the company since the commencement of this investigation and in the circumstances, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will continue to defer consideration of new work permit applications either received or already on hand from the company,” he said.

Mr Martin also confirmed that the Government had reached an agreement with Gama “that no workers will be repatriated or moved from site to site in Ireland without prior reference to the Labour Inspectorate.”

Speaking on behalf of the company, Gama’s solicitor Richard Grogan said the company had invested a huge amount of money in Ireland and fully recognised the seriousness of the matter.

Mr Grogan said the company was fully aware that if yesterday’s admission was “shown to be in any way incorrect” the result would effectively mean Gama would be “closed down in Ireland.”

“The company have been very clearly told, by me and by others, that...this has to be a full and complete disclosure and that if it isn’t a full and complete disclosure that their future plans in Ireland are effectively gone,” he said.

Mr Higgins stood firmly by his allegations, calling yesterday’s admission from Gama a cynical exercise in damage limitation.

“This admission of underpayment by Gama is only the beginning of the vindication of what I alleged in the Dáil on 8th February when I called on the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to initiate an investigation,” he said.