Gama workers yesterday protested outside the official opening of a €250 million ESB power station in Co Longford. They were later told by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen that they should get all the money due to them.
Embattled Turkish company Gama was sub-contractor on the Lanesboro plant in Co Longford. The ESB and the main contractor - Finnish company Foster Wheeler - were yesterday adamant that Gama had been paid "the going trade union rate" for all the workers on the plant.
Over 200 Turkish workers were employed on the state-of-the-art plant at the height of its construction. But Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins yesterday claimed "this very important piece of Irish infrastructure was built on the back of the most shameful exploitation".
He said: "The Gama workers got food, board, and €2.20 an hour, and were forced to work 80 hours a week. The ESB are at pains to say Gama were paid the going trade union rate for workers. Gama stole the rest of the money."
Mr Cowen defended a statement he made three years ago at a sod-turning for a nearby power station in Shannonbridge, Co Offaly, when he said there was "no truth whatsoever" in a claim that Gama workers were being underpaid. Asked about this comment yesterday, he said he was not aware of the problems at the time.
In a separate development yesterday, Siptu president Jack O'Connor rejected remarks in the Dáil by the Tánaiste, in which she said the union had assured officials that everything at Gama was in order. Mr O'Connor said Ms Harney may have been "duped", as a great many people were, but "attempting to shift the blame for failure to discharge her statutory responsibility hardly adds much to the situation".
In his speech yesterday, Mr Cowen hoped that those who had worked on the Lanesboro power station would be properly paid. "That's the country we live in, and that's what we expect."
An ESB spokesman said the firm had made every effort to "ensure compliance with all labour legislation. Further Foster Wheeler insisted that all sub-contractors had full compliance."
He added: "At one stage we got written verification from Gama solicitors that they were in compliance. They mentioned audits by PricewaterhouseCooper to show that everything was in compliance." Mr Higgins repeated his call for the lifting of the High Court injunction preventing the publication of the report by the Labour Inspectorate.