A campaign to address the "truly shocking" employment standards in the mushroom industry was announced yesterday by Siptu.
The country's biggest trade union said it had put together a team of full-time organisers to co-ordinate its efforts to improve pay and conditions in the sector.
In a separate development, Siptu's construction branch has requested an "urgent meeting" with Minister for Employment Micheál Martin about exploitation of migrant workers on building sites.
The team established to combat problems in the mushroom sector is to be headed by Mike Jennings, Siptu's midlands and southeast regional secretary.
He said yesterday that wages and conditions for workers in the sector were "truly shocking" and were worse than anything he had seen in Ireland. "It is a ruthless industry, paying workers disgraceful wages and expecting them to work excessively long hours," he said.
An industry spokesman could not be contacted for comment.
Spokesmen for both the Latvian embassy and Migrant Rights Centre Ireland told The Irish Times recently that they received a disproportionately high number of complaints from workers in the sector.
Meanwhile, Siptu construction branch official Brendan O'Brien delivered a letter to Mr Martin's office yesterday, inviting him to visit various building sites to witness first-hand the "gross mistreatment" of migrant workers.
"We would also request that you speak directly to those workers and hear from them in person how their employers are paying them well below their legal entitlements . . . and threatening and dismissing them for requesting those entitlements," the letter said.