Polish workers who picketed the main entrance to the Dublin port tunnel construction site yesterday have called off their protest after being offered work with an alternative employer.
The men had been employed up to yesterday by Format Construction, a Polish company sub-contracted to carry out work on the tunnel project.
Their union, Siptu, claims the men were not getting paid for all of the hours worked and that attempts were made this week to pressurise them into leaving the union.
Format denied the claims last night and insisted employees were paid for all hours worked. A spokeswoman said the company did not mind whether workers joined a union or not. She said the company had, however, issued notices to the workers this week that their employment would be terminated in mid-June.
This was because Format had "had problems" with the workers in recent months and had been unable to communicate with them, she said.
The workers, about 40 in total, responded to the dismissal notices by placing a picket yesterday on the main entrance to the tunnel construction site at Whitehall.
The matter was resolved following talks between the union and John Mowlem and Co, one of the main contractors on the project. Siptu official Dave Morris said Mowlem and Co had offered to either hire the men directly or find an alternative sub-contractor to employ them.
He said the picketers overwhelmingly accepted the proposal. The men would return to work today when arrangements to transfer their employment to an alternative company would be finalised.
Siptu has been in dispute with Format over the workers' pay and conditions for several months, and a complaint was made to the labour inspectorate of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in February.
A spokeswoman for the department said yesterday that an investigation by the inspectorate was continuing.
Mr Morris said payslips for April, which were not provided to the workers until May 19th, under-recorded the hours worked by about 25 per cent. Workers who were owed gross pay for the month of €4,100 had instead received €2,800, he said.
The company denied underpaying the workers, but said there had been a delay in printing payslips due to a computer problem.
