Migrant workers, and particularly women, are being exploited in the Irish workforce, a union-organised rally heard yesterday.

Addressing a gathering of union members and rally participants in Dublin, Salome Mbugua, national director of the African Women's Forum (AkidwA), said exploitation of immigrants at work was a reality in Ireland.

"Some migrant women say they have been made to work for 80 hours and only paid €4 per hour, work odd hours, have their movement restricted and, in some cases, their passport retained by employers," said Ms Mbugua.

She called on all Irish employers to ensure they had adequate equality policies.

"Employers should take responsibility for ensuring there is equal treatment and they should be held responsible, and charged if necessary, for ill-treatment or discrimination of employees," she said.

Her comments were supported by the Dublin Council of Trade Unions, with Arthur Hall, the group's president, saying migrant workers, and particularly those from outside the European Union, represented the most vulnerable section of the labour force.

Speaking at the rally, whose theme was Global Day for Fair Pay, Mr Hall said that without the support of trade unions, these people faced a bleak future. However, he also pointed out that the 200,000-strong migrant working population had an important role to play in the union movement.

Mr Hall said that, in the past decade, the number of people coming from abroad to live in Ireland had risen from 2 per cent to more than 10 per cent of the population.

As a result he urged caution that as the growth in the economy slowed and had the inevitable knock-on effect of employment reduction, that there was not a racist backlash.