May Day rally hears appeal to improve migrant worker rights

UNION leaders used yesterday’s annual May Day rally in Dublin to call for greater protections for Ireland’s increasing number of migrant workers.

President of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, Arthur Hall, told hundreds of marchers at the Global Day for Fair Pay rally that defending labour rights was important for social stability.

“If we want to prevent the sort of racist backlash that deteriorating economic conditions have generated elsewhere we must be uncompromising in our defence of decent labour standards for all.

“We must carry the war to bad employers by naming and shaming them wherever they are and the policy of a Global day for fair pay must apply every day of the year, not just on May Day.”

He said the country’s 200,000 migrant workers, particularly those from outside the European Union, were among the most vulnerable section of the labour force and faced a bleak future without the support of the trade union movement.

He said the trend of companies operating globally meant pay and working conditions across the economy had been driven down by employers.

Akidwa, Ireland’s African Women’s Forum, said migrant workers were being paid as little as €4 an hour for an 80-hour working week.

Workers were also being denied promotion, pay rises, written contracts, job descriptions and even pay slips, the forum said.

Yesterday’s rally saw marchers leave Parnell Square and finish at Customs House, where entertainment was staged.

Among the musicians entertaining the crowds was Hothouse Flowers’ front man, Liam O’Maonlai.