MORE THAN half of immigrants working in Irish restaurants earn less than the minimum wage, according to a new report.
Some 43 per cent also work more than the legal limit of 48 hours per week, while 85 per cent do not receive overtime rates or extra pay for Sunday work.
The survey of migrant workers, published yesterday by the Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI), found that 53 per cent of those with jobs in restaurants earned less than the minimum wage, while 44 per cent did not get rest breaks.
Suggesting there was a widespread culture of exploitation in the restaurant industry, the organisation documented cases of migrants being paid €2 per hour, working in excess of 75 hours per week and suffering threats of deportation or harm to their families if they complained about their treatment.
"The majority chose not to complain about their pay and conditions," the report said. "The greatest reason was fear of losing their job, especially for non-EU workers on work permits, who feared that the employer would not renew their permit and have them deported from Ireland."
Bill Abom, co-ordinator of the centre's restaurant workers action group, said: "These results are shocking. There are serious problems in how migrant workers are treated in the Irish restaurant industry."
He said the research tallied with the findings of the National Employment Rights Authority, which recently reported that 76 per cent of 860 catering businesses it inspected were in breach of employment laws.
The MRCI study found very low rates of unionisation among restaurant workers, with 88 per cent having never been in contact with a trade union. A similar proportion - 86 per cent - believed exploitation and unfair treatment of restaurant workers was widespread.
Mr Abom said that while a successful restaurant industry was important for Ireland, "that success must not be built on the back of exploited workers".
Urging the Government to tighten the law to protect migrant workers from exploitation, he said labour inspectors should be given the power to give employers on-the-spot fines for breaches of employment law.
The work permit system must also be changed so that non-EU citizens were no longer tied to one employer, he said. This could be done by issuing a permit to individuals for certain job categories, enabling them to move between employers without having to make a new application and pay a fee each time they changed jobs.
Of 115 migrants surveyed, the largest group (18 per cent) was Bangladeshi, while 17 per cent were Indian, 15 per cent Chinese and 11 per cent Pakistani. Some two-thirds were work permit-holders, 14 per cent were undocumented and 7 per cent were EU citizens.
Case study: 'My boss made me work 72 hours a week'
"I came to Ireland in November 2002 to work as a full-time chef at an Indian restaurant. "...I came because I wanted to build a better life and earn money to support my wife and family and help my younger brother to go to university.
"I paid €5,000 to my boss to come to work here. He told me I could earn good money in Ireland - about €300 per week.
"But when I first started, my salary was €50 per week without any accommodation. I did not receive a contract of employment. He never gave me the original work permit.
"My boss made me work 72 hours per week [and] I had to work lunch and dinner shifts every day of the week. I did not have any day off. He would pay me in cash. I never received a pay slip or a P60. He would also make fake business reports to save money from being taxed.
"Several times I complained about things - that I wanted proper pay - but he would threaten me that he would cancel my work permit
". . . It was like mental torture . . . I worked there for nearly five years. The boss gave me an increase of €25 in my weekly salary every year. In 2007, I was paid €175 per week for 72 hours of work, which is less than €2.50 per hour.
"After I left it took me a long time to get the courage to make a complaint. When I did, he phoned my family in Bangladesh. He said to my parents that when I go on holidays to Bangladesh I might have some big problems."
From Exploitation in Ireland's Restaurant Industry, published by Migrant Rights Centre Ireland