A public "name and shame campaign" to expose employers found guilty of exploiting workers was called for yesterday by Siptu at its biennial conference in Cork.
Delegates also backed a call for the union to lead a national publicity campaign to highlight the exploitation of workers, both from Ireland and abroad. Increased resources for the State's labour inspectorate and tougher penalties for employers who breach employment laws were also demanded.
New examples of alleged cases of abuse were outlined to the conference by speakers from Siptu branches. One said she was aware of a Filipina domestic worker who had got on well with her employer until she had suffered an accident and hurt her back.
It was clear that her employer resented the fact that the worker was confined to bed and, when she attempted to have her sick leave extended, she was dismissed, the conference was told.
Dave Murphy, of the Dublin construction branch, said that last Friday three Polish workers were sacked after they complained to their employer, a building industry sub-contractor, that they had not been paid for three weeks.
"The employer told them, 'I have no money, f*** off', and he sent the three lads home. They were the words he used," Mr Murphy said.
Delegates unanimously passed a motion noting "with alarm" the evidence that high numbers of migrant workers were suffering "gross exploitation" in private homes, where they were employed under a range of titles such as nannies, housekeepers, child minders and cleaners.
"Due to sensitivities surrounding the privacy of the family home, even the minimal enforcement powers of the labour inspectorate are not available as protection for these isolated, vulnerable workers.
There are recorded instances of such workers being subjected to extremely low levels of pay, very long working hours, verbal and even physical abuse, invasion of privacy and virtual imprisonment, " the motion said.
Mary Ann Murphy, of the retired members' section, said the majority of those exploited in the domestic sector were women. She had suffered the same exploitation herself as a domestic worker in the 1950s, when she was paid ten shillings a week for working 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week.
"Times have not changed and I am sure it's a lot worse for the women coming into this country who are in domestic service and by the way I am still owed ten shillings from the 1950s," she said.
Dublin construction branch president Paul Hansard said major companies in the sector were "going down the new road" of outsourcing work to sub-contractors.
"They no longer want direct labour on the sites, but are using agencies instead. And once you are laid off you have no hope of being employed directly again."
Waterford delegate David Byrne said he was angry because motions condemning exploitation were debated at every biennial conference. "And where have got? Bloody nowhere!"
It had even reached the stage, he said, where the employers' body, Ibec, was blaming Siptu "for the disgrace of Irish Ferries". Union members should "march and march and march", he said, until they had secured a statutory right for workers to be represented by unions.
Siptu national organiser Noel Dowling said "what we're dealing with here is a disease, rampant greed, and we're dealing with it every day". The only antidote, he added, was for union members to go out and convince their fellow workers, over one million of them, of the benefits of union membership.
