Probe may force migrant labour firm to pull out

A MULTINATIONAL construction firm at the centre of a migrant labour scandal could be forced to pull out of Ireland as a Government report into the controversy fails to clear the company.

Turkish building giant Gama has been under investigation by the Government's labour inspectorate since Socialist Party leader Joe Higgins last month accused the firm of "immigrant worker exploitation of massive proportions".

Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Higgins said: "This company imports workers who do not speak English from their home base, controls their passports and work permits, accommodates them often in company barracks, demands grotesque working hours and, incredibly, pays unskilled construction workers between €2 and €3 an hour."

The Irish Examiner has learned that in the course of the Government's investigations, several whistleblowers came forward to confirm the allegations in detail to Government inspectors.

However, investigators were unable to unearth conclusive documentary evidence to support the allegations.

Nevertheless, the inspector's report, which is to be submitted to Enterprise Minister Mícheál Martin today, stops short of clearing Gama completely.

Instead, it calls for Mr Martin to sanction further investigations into additional questions raised during the inquiry.

"It raises questions and the possibility of another investigation," said one source familiar with the report.

In particular, the report cites concerns over unsatisfactory pay slips something that could result in the Department of Enterprise seeking to prosecute Gama.

The development will come as a significant blow to Gama which earlier this month conceded that a negative report would jeopardise its entire Irish operation.

Operating here since 2000, Gama has invested hundreds of millions of euro in Ireland and worked on some of the State's largest infrastructural projects such as the Ennis and Ballincollig bypasses.

After the firm this month admitted an internal check had discovered underpayments of 8% to hundreds of Turkish workers, a representative conceded that any further findings against the company would threaten its multi-million euro Irish operations.

"The company was advised by me that it had one opportunity, and one only, to give a full and complete disclosure, and that failure to do so at this stage would put the future of the company in Ireland at serious risk," said Gama's solicitor Richard Grogan.

Mr Higgins last night stood by his allegations and promised to raise the issue in the Dáil again on Wednesday.

"I believe that Gama will have a lot more questions to answer and I will be putting those questions to them," he said.