Despite last year's controversy over underpaid foreign workers in the construction industry, the issue has not gone away, reports Ali Bracken
The trade union Siptu is investigating several construction companies they believe are exploiting non-nationals by underpaying them or failing to pay into the mandatory pension scheme.
"Exploitation of non-national workers in the construction trade is rampant," according to Brendan O'Brien, a Dublin Siptu official.
According to the union a Polish-run company, Almar Construction, owes three Polish ex-employees about €5,000. One of the workers who spoke to The Irish Times but who declined to be named, claimed he is owed €2,000 from his employer, while two others are owed about €1,500 each. He ended his employment with Almar Construction in October.
Almar Construction was hired as a sub-contractor to carry out work at the Mater hospital and it was for this work that the company has not paid their ex-employees, according to Siptu. It says despite numerous meetings between the union, Almar Construction and the main building contractor, SIAC Building Envelope Ltd, ex-employees are still owed money.
When contacted, the owner of Almar Construction, Marek Hycza, said: "This is true, some money is owing. It is now SIAC who are responsible for paying these workers."
Mr Hycza said he was surprised that as much as €5,000 was claimed to be owed to three of his ex-employees.
A spokesman for SIAC Building Envelopes said they would be reimbursing the money owed to the Polish workers Almar Construction had failed to pay.
"It became apparent that Almar were not paying some of there employees, so we took on some responsibility . . . We will be honouring the cheques that Almar gave to employees that bounced," he said.
The SIAC spokesman said Almar Construction had been paid properly for work carried out and Siptu confirmed that they were satisfied that Almar Construction had been correctly paid by SIAC.
While Almar Construction has registered with the pension scheme, they have not paid any mandatory payments on behalf of their employees, Siptu say.
Following notification from Siptu, the Labour Inspectorate is also investigating Almar Construction.
In another case, SIPTU say Dublin-based company Apex Structures, was charging Romanian workers €200 per week for housing them in caravans in 2005.
When one of the Romanians moved out, the company continued to deduct €100 for rent from his wages each week. Siptu brought a case to the Rights Commissioner on behalf of this Romanian employee, Remus Gasper.
Rights Commissioner Joan Carmichael instructed Apex Structures to reimburse Mr Gasper €8,928 for illegal wage deductions and unpaid wages.
"I find that the respondent made an illegal deduction from the claimant's wages in respect of accommodation at the rate of €100 per week after tax," Ms Carmichael said in her finding on June 29th, 2005.
Apex Structures are appealing this decision to the Employment Appeals Tribunal, Siptu say. When contacted, the company declined to comment.
The legally binding, registered employment agreement for the construction industry has established a minimum hourly wage of €13.48.
Despite this, three weeks ago FÁS were advertising on their website dozens of construction jobs offering well under the minimum wage. FÁS were therefore in breach of the registered employment agreement, according to Siptu. When contacted, a FÁS spokeswoman said the job advertisements in question had been removed.
"There were errors and we will be briefing all of our companies about the registered employment agreement. We'll have to do work in ensuring this doesn't happen again," she said.
In another case, Troon Developments, based in Dublin, paid non-national workers €10 per hour and presented them with hand-written payslips, seen by The Irish Times.
One employee's payslip stated he had worked 52 hours but he was not paid in accordance with the overtime rate, according to Siptu. When contacted, the company refused to comment.
A multi-lingual newspaper for foreign nationals, Dublin Info Centre, is also advertising a number of construction jobs at €10 an hour. When contacted, a spokesman for Dublin Info Centre said he was unaware that the minimum wage for the construction industry was €13.48.
Siptu is investigating Sharkey and Duffy, a scaffolding and labouring sub-contractor, for non-compliance with the pension scheme in relation to Polish employees.
When contacted, Joe Sharkey said: "Siptu have been on to us and it's all going to be sorted out."
Siptu is also investigating Des Gaffney Construction for non-compliance with the pension scheme in relation to Polish employees. Mr Gaffney said he had not been aware of the mandatory pension scheme, but the matter had now been "sorted out".
Siptu are investigating several other companies for non-compliance with the pension scheme in relation to non-nationals.