Gama report - Workers’ rights must be protected
It is especially so, given that the Supreme Court is to adjudicate on a critical report by the Labour Inspectorate which the company has sought, through a High Court injunction, to prevent being published.
It must be assumed that the company has taken this approach to the report to protect its reputation and to prevent public comment on practices which would be perceived to be inimical to it.
The headlines were dominated for some time last year when the workers felt compelled to engage in unprecedented protests which included occupying Gama sites around the country.
That report was commissioned by Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin and apparently supports allegations of underpayment by the company to its workers. Its contents are obviously exceptionally serious as Gama could have ranged against it the Director of Corporate Enforcement, the Garda Fraud Squad, and Revenue Commissioners and other authorities to whom copies of the report have been forwarded.
Yet, even as former Gama workers are compelled to take legal action in Turkey in relation to underpayments to them while working in Ireland, and current employees here are seeking redress through the Labour Court on separate claims, the Government continues to award Gama major contracts.
As recently as last August the company was awarded the highly profitable contract for the Castleblayney bypass, presumably over other tendering companies which enjoy better relations with their workers.
The procedure for awarding such contracts needs to be reviewed because it would appear that the local council awarded that contract, with the approval of the National Roads Authority, after Gama was given a clean bill of health by several Government departments as well as the Revenue Commissioners.
Awarding public sector contracts may be surrounded by strict regulations to ensure the State and the taxpayers are protected, as well as EU rules governing fair trade, but there should also be provision for the protection of workers’ rights.
In awarding such a contract, where public money is involved, there is a moral obligation on the Government to apprise itself of the probity of a company in this regard.
It is not sufficient to only establish that the essential legal requirements have been adhered to by tendering companies, and certainly in the case of Gama there had not merely been warning signals about its treatment of migrant workers, but flares sent up.
Last year in the Dáil, Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins - who had championed the plight of the Turkish workers - alluded to a very pertinent point. He said the labour laws here allowed ruthless exploiters of workers, whether Irish or migrant, to hide behind the courts and laws of this land in having shameful truths suppressed.
There is something inherently unbalanced when an employer can use the legal devices of this country to get a High Court injunction with relative speed, while its workers have to go through a relatively slow process of the State’s agencies to process a grievance.
The public may have been under the impression that the shameful Gama episode had been resolved, but obviously it has not.
While it might appear presumptuous to suggest an attitude the Supreme Court should adopt in relation to the Labour Inspectorate report, this newspaper would respectfully urge it allows publication in the interests of public concern.
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