Immigrant workers being exploited, warn unions
Monday April 02 2001
On the first anniversary of the introduction of the £4.40 hourly wage, ICTU has called for more inspectors from Tanaiste Mary Harney's Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to police the pay rights of immigrant workers.
Workers from outside the EU, including those from countries like Latvia and Lithuania, are being brought here on contracts set up by agencies in their own countries, according to Liam Berney, industrial officer with ICTU.
But when they got here they found a very different working arrangement. Mr Berney said these workers, many of whom had little English, found themselves in workplaces where their board and lodgings was being deducted from their pay.
"There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that migrant workers are not getting the minimum wage. There should be a system of tracking these workers to see to what extent this is happening," he said.
Mr Berney said a monitoring group had been set up by the Tanaiste's department consisting of SIPTU, Mandate and ICTU representatives.
He said that while compliance with the minimum wage was running at around 90pc, there was no room for complacency. "In the other 10pc of cases there are technical breaches where people do not understand the legislation." Since the introduction of the minimum wage expected to benefit over 160,000 workers there have been 3,396 compliance inspections. The hourly rate is to rise to £4.70 in July.
- Kathy Donaghy
