Four Polish construction workers who said they were sacked when they queried their wages of between €100 and €125 a week have been awarded compensation by the Labour Court.
The men said they were told that "taxes had increased" when they asked their employer, Brendan O'Rourke Construction of Naas, Co Kildare, why their wages had been halved.
They had earlier been receiving between €200 and €250 for an 84-hour week, the court was told by their union Siptu. They were also provided with accommodation.
The number of hours they claim to have worked is disputed by the company.
In a recommendation just published, the court said it was "extremely concerned" at their employer's failure to keep proper records or comply with "basic employment law".
It told the company to pay three of the men €3,000 and the other €4,000 in compensation.
Siptu told the court that the men were hired by the company in May last year, and were paid a rate of €7 an hour, which was then the minimum wage.
It said the four were entitled to €12.77 per hour, which was the agreed construction industry rate for unskilled labourers at that time.
For the final four weeks of their employment, prior to their dismissal in late July/early August last year, the four were paid between €100 and €125 a week, the union said.
The men had received no pay slip or holiday entitlements.
The company told the court it was prepared to pay appropriate rates to the four, including retrospection, once they provided documentary evidence that they were tradesmen. However, this had not been forthcoming to date.
It said the four had also refused to supply PPS numbers, and the company had serious doubts about their qualifications as their work was shoddy and had to be knocked down and rebuilt.
It said as well as providing accommodation the company had helped the four workers when possible, and had given them €3,000.
Siptu said the four had never claimed to be tradesmen, but had experience in the construction industry.
They had worked on a number of sites around Naas and Monasterevin and performed a wide variety of tasks.
It claimed one of the men was owed outstanding wages of €14,800, and the other three were owed €11,859 each.
The court said it was clear that the migrant workers concerned were employed in the construction industry.
"Not only were they not paid the craft rate [as they claim they should be] but they were not paid at the accepted construction industry general workers' rate.
"Instead, they were paid the national minimum wage and were subject to deductions for lodging."
Accordingly, it recommended that the longest serving worker, David Plaska, be paid an ex-gratia sum of €4,000, and that the other three, who were not named in the court's recommendation, receive €3,000 each.
