Several thousand jobs in Dublin's booming catering industry were now being filled by foreign labour, including undocumented refugees, according to a senior SIPTU official. Mr Norman Croke, who represents SIPTU members working in hotels and restaurants throughout the greater Dublin area, said the industry was facing a crisis.
He said yesterday he was not being xenophobic but was concerned that "a new sub-culture of exploited labour is being set up". Unscrupulous, non-union employers were recruiting undocumented refugees because of their vulnerability.
"Last year, we had Spanish workers coming here and wellknown companies are advertising in Spain for workers. Every major hotel and restaurant in Dublin has foreign workers," said Mr Croke.
However, he said now that the supply of EU labour for low-paid jobs had dried up, some employers were turning to other sources.
He said foreigners were often working for cash into the hand yet some employers were stopping tax and PRSI, even though these workers could never claim benefits.
As in other European capitals, the catering labour force was becoming increasingly cosmopolitan, said Mr Croke, and SIPTU had recruited many of these workers.
In a case last week, an Italian waiter had come and complained that he was only being paid £2 an hour and was sent home when things were quiet.
He said it was possible in such cases to take action but undocumented refugees were outside the scope of protective legislation and the situation was getting worse.
This situation was developing because a boom in tourism was taking place simultaneously with a strategy of maintaining poverty-level wages by some employers.
He said over the past four years, the number of restaurants had increased by 31 per cent and the number of fast-food outlets had doubled.
There were now over 17,000 extra people employed in the industry but the number of skilled and certified workers was falling.
"The unwillingness of school leavers and the unemployed to apply for jobs within the catering industry has led to a skills shortage and many sectors are experiencing an employment crisis.
"The only long-term solution was to agree fair and realistic minimum wage rates; enforceable limits on the hours of work; decent overtime rates; a proper pension fund; and a sick pay scheme."
He said if the industry refused to provide decent working conditions, there would be further deskilling of the workforce and exploitation of vulnerable groups, such as women and young people.
This, he said, was an unacceptable basis on which to build a major sector of the economy, which employed 188,000.