SIPTU to name and shame agencies exploiting migrants

SIPTU is to start naming and shaming employment agencies which are exploiting migrant workers in industries across the country.

The union has gone public with the campaign after it emerged yesterday that agency workers at Musgrave distribution plant in Dublin were being paid as little as half the amount their Irish counterparts were earning.

Musgrave said the workers were employed by three recruitment agencies, and the terms and conditions of the staff were agreed directly with their employment agencies and not with them.

It said it was in negotiations with SIPTU to take on up to 40 of the agency workers on a full-time basis. That was confirmed by the union.

However, John Dunne of SIPTU said the gap in wages and conditions between migrant workers and Irish staff was rife in a number of other distribution centres across Ireland, as well as in other industries such as construction, hospitality and health sectors.

He said the exploited agency workers in the sectors mainly come from Eastern Europe and China and are generally pushed into the less desirable roles with inferior conditions and earning below the correct salary.

“We have been quietly recruiting these people into the unions in the last few months and we are now on a campaign to organise agency workers,” he said. “Some of the agencies are better than others. The aim is to ensure they are fairly treated no matter who employs them.”

He estimated there are at least 20 of the employment agencies in Dublin alone and said they are mainly privately run Irish companies.

Speaking at the IMPACT civil service conference in Dublin yesterday, Labour Affairs Minister Tony Killeen said it was inevitable that when there is such a huge level of employment growth, 80,000 plus per annum, cases of exploitation would be found, especially as more than half are migrant workers but added legislation was being brought in to stop exploitation.

“New legislation that has been out to consultation is back now. It is going to tighten up the whole area of how agencies operate, the obligations on agencies, registration obligations and others of that nature,” he said. “Also it will ensure the workers can neither be exploited nor used to depress the wages market. I think it will be very well received. It is a pity we could not get it through before the end of the last Dáil.” However, at the IMPACT conference the Government was accused of outsourcing tenders to organisations which breach labour laws.

The union claimed a British company, which it did not name but was later identified as Operon, was flouting minimum pay and conditions set down in the legally binding ‘Joint Labour Committeeregulations’ while managing cleaning and security services at the StateLaboratories. While it was paying above the minimum wage, it was not meeting union-agreed standards and the union referredit to the LabourRelations Commission this week.

However, the Office of Public Works which awarded Operon the contract said it did not believe the company was breaching any agreements or any labour laws.

Operon was unavailable for comment last night.