The employer-held work permit system for immigrant workers from non-EU countries was "bonded slavery" which suited employers who could go abroad "to pick and choose the fittest", a conference was told yesterday.
A motion calling for an end to the employer-held work permit system for non-national workers and to give the permits to the immigrant workers was passed at the SIPTU south-west regional conference in Tralee.
Ms Teresa O'Sullivan, Cork No 7 branch, said the permit system might suit market forces, but it had no place in a civilised society.
"We have a society that states it will condone slavery. We have a society that condones bonded slaves. We might as well get the hiring fair back," she said, to loud applause.
She said families were being separated as individual parents came here to work. Often employers did not renew contracts, so the workers became "invisible" and had to work illegally, becoming more vulnerable.
Seconding the motion calling for an end to the current work permit system, Mr Anthony O'Sullivan said IBEC was endorsing the work permit system, and was using it to depress pay and conditions. "The message to Government is stark. End slavery now."
SIPTU vice-president, Mr Brendan Hayes, said there was a real danger unscrupulous employers were using the thousands of immigrant workers this economy needed each year to undermine the established pay and conditions of Irish workers.
Mr Anton McCabe, of SIPTU Against Racism Group, said the open-door policy introduced by former minister for enterprise, trade and employment, Ms Harney, had created "a cheap pool of labour" for employers. This was why IBEC backed the existing work permit system.
He called on the new Minister, Mr Martin, not to allow the IBEC line to hold sway, and to change the work permit system.
Mr McCabe also called on the Minister to put in place a monitoring system to look after the welfare of these workers. There were different categories of exploitation within the work permit system, and there was no proper inspection.
He was aware of restaurant owners exploiting fellow countrymen from India and China.
Meanwhile, the conference was urged to take the lead and open the doors of its "many empty halls around the country" to facilitate affordable childcare.
Tackling the childcare problem could also help SIPTU to attract and unionise more members, a SIPTU south-west regional conference heard.
A start to solving the problem lay on their own doorstep, Mr Seán Counihan, a member of the Killarney Trades Council, said.
He said SIPTU had hundreds of halls around the country, many of them empty or under-used. Providing childcare would "show up the Government" and help draw people in to the union, he said.Childcare was now costing working parents more than €150 a week per child.
A motion calling on the National Executive Council to pursue the issue of affordable childcare by a series of tax incentives and social welfare incentives was passed unanimously.