Plight of foreign workers ignored

IT was February 8. Reading back over it, you would swear it was way back in the distant past, something about Russian serfs towards the end of the 19th century.

The shame of it was that it was February 8, 2005, when Joe Higgins rose to his feet in the Dáil. The story he told seemed incredible, fantastical: “There is a major foreign-based multinational construction company employing approximately 10,000 people, 2,000 approximately in this State, which has secured massive local authority and State contracts here.

“This company imports workers from its home base, who do not speak English, controls their passports and work permits, accommodates them often in company barracks, demands an extent of hours worked that can only be called grotesque and, incredibly, pays unskilled construction workers between €2 and €3 per hour basic pay and skilled workers somewhere over €3 an hour.