Worker exploitation - Job standards must be addressed

The issue of whether unscrupulous employers are taking advantage of foreign labour, to the detriment of Irish workers, may have been a matter of public perception up to now.

But politicians were yesterday presented with what those bearing it claimed was proof.

It came from the Cork Building Group (CBG), which represents 20,000 members in various trades in the Munster region and consisted of wage slips that they say substantiate their claims of exploitation. What the CBG produced to a cross-party delegation of national and local politicians is disturbing because it is palpable evidence that the problem does exist - a smoking gun.

While the official rate of pay, agreed with the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), was quoted as e16.87 per hour, the wage slips produced, which belonged to foreign workers, indicated that they were being paid half that rate in some cases, while others were on even lower wages. In one instance, a slip belonging to an Eastern European worker revealed payments of e4.60 per hour over a seventy-five hour week.

Also highlighted this week was the case of the so-called Ballybrack Three, plasterers jailed for breaching a court order banning them from picketing at a Collen Construction site.

The workers and their supporters claim that the company involved, and its subcontractors, refused to employ local workers and trade union members - a charge roundly rejected by Collen Construction, which insists that it employs trade union members and that their pay rates are similar to those of non-union workers.

That dispute, headed next week for the Labour Relations Commission, has already caused gardaí and protesters to clash a highly undesirable development in labour relations. Against this background, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) is demanding new legislation to protect employment standards and prevent job displacement, something employers are resisting.

The question is hindering the advancement of a new national wage agreement, meanwhile, with talks resuming yesterday on that vital project.

In the light of serious unrest and disquiet, the Government must properly address the issues of employment standards.