A CONSTRUCTION firm involved in developing the €425 million M7 motorway from Nenagh to Limerick has been found guilty of falsifying employment records.
Rac Eire Partnership, a consortium of three Portuguese construction companies, was fined a total of just €3,000 for providing false employment records for staff working on the construction of the motorway to the National Employment Rights Authority (Nera).
Trade unions want fines for such offences increased.
The authority took the case on behalf of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment following an inspection of the company’s records in July 2008. It was heard at Nenagh District Court.
It was the first prosecution by the authority against an employer working on a State contract.
The employment records produced by the company showed hours worked as 8.30am to 6pm, while the workers gave evidence of working from 7am to 8pm.
The construction of the project was contracted to Bóthar Hibernian. The Rac Eire consortium was subcontracted by Hibernian. It is not known how much Rac Eire was paid for its part in the multimillion euro project.
The National Roads Authority (NRA) said it had no role in the employment of Rac Eire and had no contractual arrangements with the company. However, an NRA spokesman said it was glad employment law was being enforced.
A Nera spokesman yesterday welcomed the outcome of the case.
“The case was prosecuted to the full extent of Nera’s current powers. Falsification of records is an offence which Nera takes very seriously as it can be used to deny employees their basic working entitlements. We welcome this successful prosecution in this regard,” he said.
The authority had no role in determining the level of fines which could be applied, the spokesman said, as these would be a matter for legislation. The maximum fine in this case was €2,500 for each of the companies.
Siptu representative Pat McCabe said a number of the workers were privately pursuing cases against Rac Eire in relation to unpaid wages. However, he said it was imperative that fines for companies that falsified documents to circumvent employment agreements be increased.
“The fines there currently are derisory and must be increased if they are to provide any real deterrent to employers treating workers in this way,” he said.
The Nenagh to Limerick section of the M7 Dublin to Limerick motorway opened last September despite serious difficulties earlier in the year when a section of road collapsed into the Annaholty bog between Birdhill and Annacotty.
Tens of thousands of steel-reinforced concrete piles were driven into the bog to support the road, and a concrete and steel bridge was constructed to establish a stable base for the road.
The final section of the motorway, from Castletown to Nenagh, opened in December following resolution of a separate dispute involving employees of KC Civil Engineering.
