Migrant workers are facing homelessness and destitution this Christmas after being laid off because the Irish and British Governments are blocking EU efforts to protect them, it was claimed today.
Trade unions said both governments were among a small minority in the EU holding back plans to provide agency workers with the same employment protection as permanent staff doing the same job.
Peter Bunting, assistant general secretary of Ictu, said he was alarmed at the number of migrant workers who found themselves laid off at the end of November due to what he called unscrupulous companies abusing cheap labour throughout the year.
Mr Bunting said: "Gaps in conditions and security increase precariousness and weaken the collective strength of the workforce. That division only assists slum bosses to undercut good employers with a sense of ethos and decency."
He called on Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prime Minister Gordon Brown to break a long-standing EU deadlock and agree a new deal for agency workers at a crucial meeting of Social Affairs Ministers on Wednesday.
To date both governments have been part of a blocking minority that have stopped a majority of European states seeking to ensure agency workers are treated the same as permanent staff doing the same jobs.
The European Council has been discussing a new Directive on Agency Workers since 2002. It would give such workers the right to equal treatment with a comparable permanent employee on issues such as pay, working time and holidays, maternity rights and protection against discrimination.
The majority of EU states back the proposals said but the Irish and British, along with the Danes and Germans, are blocking the directive.
Most states had brought in individual measures to give agency workers equal rights in advance of the directive, but Britain and Ireland had refused.