ESB controversy - A shameful exploitation of workers

WITH thousands of Irish workers losing their jobs as international firms relocate to the sweatshop economies of Asia, the pay and conditions of employees in Ireland are also at risk of being eroded by the shameful exploitation of immigrant workers.

Up to now, debate about the treatment of workers has centred principally on the controversies involving the Turkish-owned Gama group and the Irish Ferries policy of hiring of cheap foreign labour.

But it now emerges, according to ESB union TEEU, that Polish workers are being paid €5.20 an hour by ZRE Katowicz, a Polish contractor involved in a €350 million refurbishment programme at the ESB Moneypoint power plant in Co Clare. This contrasts with an agreed minimum hourly rate of €18.97 for craft workers.

Seventy Polish workers, some of them members of TEEU, are earning just over €1,000 a month for a 52-hour week. The company claims there are additional benefits such as accommodation and travel costs for a six-monthly bus journey to Poland, items which, according to the union, are not specified on their pay slips.

Major elements of employment legislation have been breached, according to TEEU, fuelling fears that a Gama-type scenario could exist and is further developing at Moneypoint. Furthermore, the union suspects that similar practices operated on a major refurbishment contract at ESB’s Shannonbridge station.

The repercussions of this controversy go far beyond the power station shop floor, particularly since fundamental principles relating to the protection of workers’ rights are a key plank of ongoing talks between employers and workers aimed at forging a new national agreement. The unions place heavy emphasis on the need for a joined-up approach to both health and safety and labour market inspection, possibly involving the creation of a new super-agency to replace the current ineffectual system.

Inevitably, the Gama experience looms large in any discussion about the exploitation of workers here. The unacceptable treatment of Turkish workers by the Turkish construction group has been the subject of a Government probe.

Controversy continues to be generated by the awarding of State contracts worth tens of millions of euro to Gama, a highly questionable policy which has been justified by the National Roads Authority (NRA). Pursuing a brand of logic which, on the face of it, appears to be predicated more on economic principles than worker interests, the NRA argues that since an unpublished report on the activities of the group was quashed by the High Court, Gama is innocent of all charges.

There is on onus on Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin to press ahead with his bid to gain Supreme Court clearance for the findings of his inspector’s report on Gama to be put into the public arena.

There is no denying the crucial role played by tens of thousands of workers from Latvia and other East European countries now working here. They represent a vital piece of the jigsaw if Ireland’s fragile economic boom, now mainly driven by the construction sector, is to be sustained.

Adding to the difficulties facing domestic construction workers, some 30,000 are not covered by pensions, life insurance or sick pay because employers are blatantly breaking the law. Disgracefully, the cynical practice of categorising workers as self-employed sub-contractors has enabled firms to avoid honouring such entitlements.

Unless the unacceptable practices highlighted by TEEU at the State-owned electricity company are rooted out, the integration of non-Irish nationals into society and the protection of worker rights and employment standards will be further eroded in Ireland.