Rogue bosses ‘not monitored’

The abuse of three Brazilian cleaning company workers who this week won a 50,000 judgement against their employer highlights the need for more government labour inspectors, a union leader says.

The 17 labour inspectors who currently police all rogue employers nationwide are totally inadequate and the numbers must be increased dramatically, says Mike Jennings, SIPTU Midlands and South East Regional Secretary.

Mr Jennings helped the Brazilian workers take their case against Dublin-based At Hand Cleaning Services Ltd. to the High Court.

He accused the State of failing these vulnerable workers completely. “If they were depending on the State to vindicate their rights, these exploited workers would be back in Brazil now,” Mr Jennings said.

The Brazilians’ solicitor, Donal Taaffe, said his clients made a formal complaint to a labour inspector in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment on August 16. And one of the workers, Neusa Da Silva Resende, received an acknowledgement of the complaint on August 20.

The Department letter stated: “An inspector will call to At Hand Cleaning Services Ltd as soon as possible to investigate your complaint under the Contract Cleaning Employment Regulation Order.”

Mr Taaffe said nothing happened since mid-August: “This case highlights the need for a lot more Labour inspectors to police employers who are exploiting vulnerable immigrants workers here,” he said.

Tánaiste Mary Harney claimed yesterday morning her Department had received no complaint from the Brazilian immigrants.

Later, Ms Harney’s spokesman conceded a complaint had been received by her Department but the entire file was not available when she went on morning radio.

And he rejected claims by Labour’s Enterprise spokesman Tommy Broughan that Ms Harney had misled the public.

But Ms Harney did not accept yesterday there is a need for more labour inspectors to police rogue employers.

Ms Harney said the current number was sufficient and they were now being helped by new technology to make them more mobile.

Responding to the allegation that the State had failed these immigrant workers, Ms Harney’s spokesman rejected this claim.

He said their records showed that At Hand Cleaning Services Ltd only had work permits for one of the Brazilians up to the beginning of August.

SIPTU’S Mr Jennings said the Government’s system for dealing with immigrants workers leads to exploitation. “They don’t feel they have a right to be in this country, and if they complain they are told by employers they will lose their jobs and if they lose their jobs they lose their permits.”

Every SIPTU office in the country has received complaints similar to the one taken to the High Court, according to Mr Jennings.

While he welcomed Ms Harney’s decision to suspend two foreign worker schemes, Mr Jennings said the Government needs to take a three-thronged approach to the exploitation problem. This includes:

l Setting up a centre to inform workers from abroad of their rights as soon as they arrive here.

l Appointing more inspectors to police rogue employers.

l Bringing in tough penalties for those who break the law.

But Ms Harney rejected the exploitation claim. She said the work permit scheme here is fair and most immigrant workers are treated well. This is borne out by the fact that 50% of workers have renewed their permits.

Ms Harney said her labour inspectors had processed 7,500 complaints last year, resulting in 20 prosecutions.

And the Tánaiste said she will soon bring proposals to Cabinet to tighten legislation to deal with rogue bosses.