The Government's labour inspectorate is to investigate claims that almost 100 Serbian workers were underpaid thousands of euro by a contractor involved in the ESB's €3 billion renewal of the electricity network, writes Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) said yesterday linesmen and electricians were owed thousands of euro each - in some cases up to €40,000 - after being paid less than €5 an hour.
The claims were rejected by the main contractor involved in the dispute, Dublin-based Laing O'Rourke Utilities, which said workers have always been paid the correct wages.
The underpayment claim is the third this month involving foreign national workers in State projects - Polish workers at the ESB power station in Moneypoint and Hungarian workers at Spencer Dock - and comes at a sensitive time in talks over a new partnership deal.
Unions and employers have so far been unable to agree measures to combat exploitation of migrant workers.
A spokeswoman for Minister for Enterprise and Employment Micheál Martin last night said officials from the Labour Inspectorate will make contact with all parties as part of an investigation due to commence this week.
ESB Networks, meanwhile, sought to distance itself from the controversy by asking all parties involved to try bring the dispute to a speedy conclusion.
In a statement it said ESB Networks had sought and received written confirmation from Laing O'Rourke that they and their sub-contractors were in compliance with all relevant legislation.
The TEEU, however, questioned whether the ESB had conducted a proper audit of firms involved in the renewal of the electricity network.
The alleged shortfall in pay rates involving Serbian workers was discovered last October after an audit by the main contractor, Laing O'Rourke Utilities, according to the union.
Following this the TEEU claims a Belgrade-based sub-contractor, Energoprojekt Oprema, agreed to pay the workers the correct rates of between €17 and €19 an hour, but refused to pay workers thousands of euro in back-pay.
The union's general secretary. Owen Wills, said: "We never thought that two weeks after exposing a low-pay Gama-type situation at Moneypoint, we would have to go public again on a similar, even bigger scandal involving the ESB and one of the largest construction companies in the State."
The Belgrade-based firm was unavailable for comment yesterday, but the claims were rejected by Laing O'Rourke, which said it understood that workers had always been paid the correct pay rates. The only change in October was the structure of pay slips.
Laing O'Rourke added that the Labour Inspectorate had conducted an audit of pay and conditions for the workers and no issue has arisen from these inspections.
In a statement, the company said: "All employees on the ESB project, both Serbian and Irish, are paid in accordance with national agreements and standards . . . The hourly rates of pay have always been in the range of €17-€19 euro per hour paid by Energoprojekt to its operatives."
While the ESB has also claimed no issues were identified by the Labour Inspectorate during a visit to the Laing O'Rourke/Energo site in the midlands earlier this month, Government sources said last night this visit was unrelated to the back-pay claims.
Labour Party deputy leader Brendan Howlin said the case "points to the urgent need for the expansion and better resourcing of the Labour Inspectorate".
"All of these incidents have come to light because of the work of the trade union movement and not as a result of anything done by the Labour Inspectorate in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment," he said
The TEEU said that almost half of the 96 Serbian workers failed to return from the Christmas holidays. On Friday the union's assistant general secretary, Eamon Devoy, and local TEEU representative, Paddy Murray, met Serbian members.
Some of them said they did not want the union to pursue the matter because they were afraid their work permits would be withdrawn and that they would never work again on their return home.
The TEEU said: "We are seeking a commitment from the Government that their employment rights will be fully vindicated and that arrears will be paid to all employees of the Belgrade company."