Council chairman suggests unequal pay for immigrants

A COUNTY council chairman has been strongly criticised for suggesting that unskilled migrant workers should not necessarily be paid the same wage as their Irish counterparts and their wage should reflect the lower cost of living in their home countries.

In a debate on a motion on the abuse of workers by some employment agencies, Louth County Council chairman Cllr Jimmy Mulroy (FF) said that the cost of living is higher in Ireland and while Irish people “need €12.50 an hour, people from Lithuania are doing very well on €8.50 an hour”.

Cllr Kevin Meenan (SF) said migrant workers “do not fly home at night. If they live and work here they should get the same money [as Irish workers]”.

SIPTU’s branch organiser Paul Bell said he found Mr Mulroy’s comments “absolutely shocking and disgusting” and suggested he was promoting the right to exploit migrant workers.

The comments were made debating a motion proposed by Cllr Jim Loughran (SF), who said the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has detected 296 incidents in the past three years where people employed by an agency were paid under the minimum wage.

He asked the council to support his motion calling on the minister to include the principle of “equal treatment” of all workers in forthcoming legislation on agency employment.

Mr Mulroy, a businessman in the electrical contracting industry, said eastern Europeans are often happy on lower wages.

Speaking after the meeting he stood over his comments and said he believed that Irish employers who are paying the minimum wage “should be able to take into account the cost of living in the home country of the migrant worker, when deciding the level of pay.”

“Personally, I believe people should be paid what they are worth,” he said.