Gama workers - Exploitation must not be tolerated

THE saga of how Turkish contractor Gama has operated since it arrived in this country continued to confound yesterday with the uncovering of a massive workers’ fund controlled by the company.

By any standards, what Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins discovered in Amsterdam was extraordinary and, in the manner in which money belonging to the workers was kept secret, was inexplicable.

The company can claim that the money handled by Finance Bank Holland, amounting to between €20 million and €40m, was held in the name of the workers.

The fact that they were totally unaware of the existence of such accounts, and the fact that the money was transferred into another covert account in a company called Ryder Investments, about which nothing is known, meant, de facto, the workers were prevented from enjoying the benefit of their own funds.

They certainly did not have access to it and while Gama can claim to have observed its legal obligations, it did so superficially.

The extent of the company’s surreptitious manoeuvre can be gauged, firstly by the huge amount of money involved, and secondly, that it affected 2,000 workers.

Given that they have been the key to the company’s very successful operations in this country since 2000, they have been very shabbily treated.

An investigation by labour inspectors from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, produced rather an equivocal report. While it failed to find evidence to substantiate the allegations, it did not exonerate the company entirely.

In its comparatively brief existence here, its performance has been remarkable, to the extent that it has confounded competitors by its ability to win contracts, many of them Government ones.

It won the contracts for the Ballincollig and Ennis bypasses by being able to under-bid to the tune of €15m and €5m respectively.

Since Gama became embroiled in this controversy, and on foot of the labour directorate’s investigation, Enterprise, Trade and Employment Míchéal Martin Minister stopped issuing work permits to the company.

It was pressured into admitting it paid hundreds of Turkish workers 8% less than the construction industry’s registered agreement rate.

The demeanour of the company towards its workforce, the exploitation it has subjected them to and its failure to issue satisfactory payslips, should result in its exclusion from any further Government contracts.

In any case, should the minister decide to act on some of the recommendations contained in the report which he has received, it would make it virtually impossible for the company to continue to operate here.

Mr Higgins used his Dáil privilege recently to allege that in relation to Gama “we have a master fraud, grand larceny of workers wages”, and he has persisted in the pursuit of the workers’ cause.

As a result of his persistence they would now appear to be in a position to lay claim to their own money, funds they were deprived of, no matter how the company might seek to defend themselves.

The Government must insist on the adherence to the highest standards in this country and no infringement of workers’ rights can be tolerated.