GAMA dispute - LRC is best place to solve dispute

THE dispute between the Turkish-based construction company GAMA and its workforce would be better dealt with in the Labour Relations Commission (LRC), than the workers believing they have to engage in a hunger strike to pursue their case.

Because they maintain that their grievances relating to under-payment and harassment have not been addressed, the Turkish workers are threatening to embark on this extreme measure to bring pressure to bear on the company.

Both sides have been called to appear before the LRC on Monday and, realistically, this is the most appropriate forum where those complaints can be adjudicated.

In appealing to the workers not to resort to that strategy, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheál Martin, is aware that there are issues that have to be resolved and he has acknowledged that fact, to the extent he has brought them to the attention of the Turkish ambassador.

He has also appealed to the multi-national company to attend at the LRC without pre-conditions and if it is genuine in seeking to have this dispute resolved, it will abide by the minister’s advice.

GAMA has hugely benefited from several contracts in this country, some of them Government ones, but its record has become somewhat tarnished.

Despite those very lucrative contracts, the workers, of which there are now 85, claim they have been underpaid by millions of euro for work carried out in this country. They also claim they have worked for up to 84 hours per week and been paid as little as €2.20 an hour.

They have the support of SIPTU which claims 300 workers, 200 of whom have returned home, are owed about €40 million in back pay. The union alleges those who returned to Turkey were forced to do so because of intimidation and harassment of their families by GAMA. The latter allegation has been rejected by the company, but it has also sought to prevent the publication of a report into the workers’ claims by the Department of Enterprise’s Labour Inspectorate through a High Court action.

Through Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins espousing the cause of the workers, certain anomalies were discovered, and Mr Martin has said that the Government had succeeded in getting a significant amount of money in basic pay which had been due to the vast majority of the workers.

This dispute has gone on long enough and a resolution will be better facilitated by both sides attending the LRC on Monday.