Minister awaits Gama report

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.

The report was originally due to be submitted to the minister yesterday.

It will outline the findings of the investigation undertaken by the Department of Enterprise’s Labour Inspectorate into alleged breaches of employment rights.

The investigation began after Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins accused the construction company in the Dáil last month of “immigrant worker exploitation of massive proportions”.

This included “grotesque” working hours and pay rates, he said.

In a statement yesterday, the department said the investigation had “necessitated the gathering of information from a variety of sources and the interviewing of many parties.

“A report is in preparation, which will be sent to the minister in the coming days.”

Yesterday’s Irish Examiner revealed that while investigators have been unable to unearth conclusive documentary evidence to support the allegations, their report will stop short of clearing Gama.

Instead, it will raise the prospect of further investigations into the company.

Gama has been operating in Ireland since 2000, in which time it has worked on a range of projects, including the Ennis and Ballincollig bypasses.

Gama has strenuously denied Deputy Higgins’s allegations. However, last month, it admitted to underpaying some of its 800 Turkish workers by 8% for a portion of 2004. It subsequently reimbursed the affected workers.

Minister Martin suspended the issuing of work permits to the company pending the outcome of the Labour Inspectorate investigation.