Hundreds of Gama employees trek to Galway site for mass protest
An estimated 350 workers from Dublin joined 50 colleagues who travelled from the Ennis bypass construction site to protest outside a power station being built by Gama in Tynagh, Co Galway.
The demonstration follows a Dáil march by up to 400 Gama employees on Monday, sparked by the discovery of millions in lost workers’ wages in previously unknown bank accounts in Amsterdam.
However, management at Tynagh yesterday refused to allow workers on the site to join their colleagues despite Government concerns over new allegations of intimidation by the company.
Responding to fresh allegations that workers had been threatened and thrown out of their accommodation on Sunday night, Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin summoned Gama’s management to an urgent meeting with department officials in Dublin yesterday.
However, a Gama statement released afterwards, turned the tables on the protestors, accusing them of intimidating other employees who were still working. “Several allegations of intimidation have been made in the past 24 hours.
“The only such cases Gama is aware of is intimidation of Gama employees who continued to work and declined to participate in the protest,” the statement said.
Gama also said it would repatriate 140 workers back to Turkey since their work permits had expired.
However, it was unclear last night whether the Government - which has frozen all work permits and forbidden the company from sending workers home - would oppose the repatriation.
Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins last night said Gama’s refusal to allow Tynagh workers join in the protest was an indication of how fearful the company was of recent demonstrations.
“The resolute refusal of Gama management to allow workers who have travelled from Dublin to talk to their colleagues in Tynagh or allow their colleagues to come out and talk to them shows the fear of the company and the intimidation that is going on,” said Mr Higgins.
“This is typical of Gama management and this is what has to be broken,” he said.
Meanwhile, following a two-hour meeting with management at Tynagh, SIPTU officials emerged with a guarantee that Gama would enter talks with unions and workers today in Dublin.
Gama, which first came to Ireland in 2000 at the behest of Tánaiste Mary Harney, employs up to 10,000 in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
In Ireland, more than 1,000 are employed, up to 800 of them Turkish migrants.
Although exhaustive details of Gama’s Irish work are not available, the company has successfully tendered for numerous State projects including the €119 million Ennis bypass and €90m Ballincollig bypass - a job it finished six months ahead of schedule having underbid all competitors by millions.
Among other contracts, Gama last year won tenders to build housing estates for Clare County Council and South Dublin County Council.
Joe Higgins accuses Gama, during leaders’ questions in the Dáil, of paying workers as little as €2 an hour.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern says the matter should be brought up with the Government’s Labour Inspectorate. Later that day on RTÉ radio, Gama’s solicitor, Richard Grogan, defends the company and demands an apology from Mr Higgins. Many in unions and the construction sector disregard the Dáil allegations as untrue.
Investigation begins as information gathered by the Socialist Party is brought to Enterprise Minister Michéal Martin, who immediately writes to Labour Inspectorate asking them to pursue the matter.
Meanwhile, Mr Martin freezes Gama’s work permits and forbids the company from sending any workers back to Turkey pending the completion of the report.
Having already visited some Gama sites and spoken to workers, labour inspectors continue to seize records and documents from Gama offices in Dublin. The Government’s report will later reveal that Gama destroyed some employment records of its Turkish staff in Ireland.
As labour inspectors travel to Gama’s largest project - a Galway power plant in Tynagh - the company issues a statement admitting that hundreds of Turkish workers in Ireland had been underpaid by 8% for a period of 2004.
The company, which blames the error on an administrative hiccup, makes payments to workers and suspends three staff.
Later that day, Mr Higgins demands an apology from Gama and its solicitor Mr Grogan.
Mr Grogan repeatedly tells RTÉ radio and television any further discovery of underpayments to workers would seriously jeopardise the company’s Irish operations.
Shortly afterwards Mr Grogan and Gama parted company under circumstances neither side would comment on.
Tynagh workers Metin Kaplan and Ramazan Atalay leave their jobs and accommodation claiming they have been threatened and intimidated since speaking to inspectors. Both join two other former Gama workers being kept in a safe house by Mr Higgins.
The men are later accompanied by gardaí to retrieve their passports from the Gama site.
Another Gama worker Ilker Suzen flees from Tynagh site and makes his own way to Dublin. Presenting himself at Liberty Hall with no money or home, he is put up in a safe house by the union.
Ilker is just one of numerous past and present employees to come forward as whistleblowers. SIPTU officials and gardaí later accompany Ilker to retrieve his passport from the Tynagh site.
With the Government’s report into Gama complete, the Irish Examiner reports that it fails to clear the company and instead calls for Mr Martin to sanction further investigations by the Director of Corporate Enforcement and the Revenue Commissioners.
The report also expresses concern workers had been coached to say missing wages were in a Dutch bank account - even though they never knew the account existed.
Mr Martin briefs Cabinet on developments and outlines the contents of the Government’s report.
Mr Higgins again attacks Gama in the Dáil, accusing the firm of stealing millions in workers’ wages. Holding up bank records and contracts, he claims that missing wages are being deposited in a previously unknown bank account in Finansbank in Amsterdam, Mr Higgins says Gama is engaged in “criminal exploitation in the extreme”.
Tánaiste Mary Harney tells the Dáil the abuse outlined is a disgrace.
In a meeting with Mr Higgins in Dundalk, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern paves the way for former employees to travel to Amsterdam by agreeing to give them emergency visas.
Mr Higgins flies four former workers to Finansbank in Amsterdam. The workers turn up at the bank’s HQ and find accounts in their names hold between €4,000-€23,000 deposited without their knowledge.
Accompanying the group, the Irish Examiner is told by management at the bank all Gama’s workers have accounts set up by arrangement with the company.
The bank confirms no statements had been sent to any workers and not one single Gama employee contacted the bank about their accounts.
The bank also confirms that, under written instructions from employees, the funds in each account have been transferred to a mystery third company called Ryder Investments.
Finansbank refuses to identify the owners of Ryder Investments and insists accounts have been set up upon written instructions from workers.
The workers say they were given English documents they did not understand to sign before boarding flights to work for Gama in Ireland.
Meanwhile, Gama successfully applies to the High Court for an injunction preventing publication of the Government’s report for three days.
A routine meeting scheduled with a handful of concerned workers in Dublin is unexpectedly swamped as 250 angry Turkish workers turn up.
In a marathon session workers agree to form a representative group called Turkish Workers Action Group (TWAG).
They also elect a representative committee for each Gama site nationwide and agree to down tools the following day for a march in Dublin.
As the newly elected seven-member workers’ committee from Gama’s Tynagh site return, they report being threatened and thrown off the job and their accommodation. They spend the night in Loughrea Garda station making complaints, now being investigated by gardaí.
Four hundred Gama workers bring their grievances to the streets and march on Leinster House. Unions and Gama are taken completely by surprise.
In a crowded meeting in Liberty Hall the workers agree to bring their protest to Tynagh the next day.
Gama issues a statement denying any wrongdoing and promises to send employees a letter outlining how they can access their money in Finansbank.
Meanwhile, in the High Court, Gama is granted a further week’s extension on their injunction preventing publication of the Government’s report.
As Gama management are summoned by Mr Martin to meet with department officials following new complaints of intimidation and abuse, 400 Gama workers travel from Dublin to the Tynagh site in an escalation of their protest.
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