IRISH construction workers in Germany may lose out under a new law on minimum wages and training standards for building workers there which comes into force today. Trade union sources say it may affect as many as 10,000 Irish building workers, who have benefited from the country's reconstruction boom following unification.
From March 1st, German employers will have to pay the same rates to foreigners as to their German counterparts under the regulations. Companies breaking the new law face fines of up to 100,000 deutschmarks (about £43,000).
Mr Noel O'Neill, regional secretary of the Union of Construction of Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT), says the changes are not "in the best interests of the Irish worker".
Ms Heike John of the Irish Trade Board office in Dusseldorf says the law is being introduced because of concern about the high level of unemployment caused by cheap foreign labour.
Foreign construction workers are regarded as "poachers" by their German colleagues. They are, accused of working for bargain rate wages of sub contracting deals.
This alleged "wage dumping" has led to profiteering by middlemen and left German workers on the dole. There are now four million unemployed workers in Germany and, as the problem becomes increasingly politically sensitive, the Bonn parliament has been forced to act.
The German construction industry is seeking an interim solution for contracts which have been agreed with foreign companies before the law came into force.
More threatening to Irish building workers is the move by the German unions to have external building site representatives appointed to police the new laws to make sure they are enforced.
Ms Tina Eberhardt, third secretary and press counsellor at the German embassy in Dublin, said it had been getting a lot of calls about the new laws from building workers planning to go to Germany.
"People are concerned about getting a job and the security if they go," she said.
Dr Dieter Tscherning, executive director of the German Irish Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Dublin, said there were always problems created in bringing people from one working environment to another.
"On the other hand, just recently we have encouraged a German entrepreneur to advertise in the Irish papers for suitable, people. If some workers have bad experiences, others have good ones," he said.
Dr Tscherning said that, despite the law change, there was still a lot of migration of building workers going on which seems to prove there is work available.
He said he understood the change in the law was part of an EU directive that workers from other members states should get the same minimum wage.
"What it will mean is that EU workers in the construction trade will be entitled to a minimum wage in Germany irrespective of what they get in their own country," he said.
Mr O'Neill said there could be up to 10,000 Irish workers involved. The minimum wage was part of the problem but complaints he had from members in Germany indicated the certification rules involved could be a more serious obstacle.
He said he had heard of figures of up to DM40 an hour being sought by the most skilled German construction workers. This had led to sub contracting, with middlemen agreeing to do the job for about half, that and then employing Irish and other EU workers for around DM10 or DM15 an hour.
Mr O'Neill, who has undertaken a special study on construction qualifications on behalf of the Irish Government, said that he understood the new rules also meant that someone who wants to qualify for the minimum wage must have a permanent German address.
"But we have people there who are going and coming all the time, maybe on a weekly basis in some cases, and it's going to affect them. As well as that there are certain basic minimum standards that the Germans have that can't be achieved in this country.
"They have a certification called a `meisteir' standard and we would have no equivalent of that. The Germans have a lot of certification that we don't have.
"I have had members contacting me from Germany saying that the minimum standard will effectively mean that you will need qualification papers to show that you completed your apprenticeship and have experience in the industry.
"They weren't too particular about qualification standards before, but now it looks like that if you cannot prove your bona fides you could be out of a job. In the craft area it should be all right but in the general operative area it is going to be very difficult to prove."
Mr O'Neill said the system had been used to employ cheap labour and, while Irish workers may not have been happy with it, they had been forced to accept it. Many Irish workers had moved to Germany from Britain because of the building slump there.
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