Madam, - I read with regret the Labour Party leader's comments on the introduction of a work permit system for EU workers. I write as a long-time trade union activist in the construction industry and also as a union official from the mid 1990s until 2004. At that time I was at the coalface of trying to get justice for workers from Eastern Europe and elsewhere who worked under this system. I soon came to realise that the permit system created nothing more than slave labour.
Workers from Eastern Europe were employed on some of the major construction projects in Dublin for as little as €3 an hour. In some cases, if they missed time through illness or for another reason, they had to pay an agency the equivalent of a day's pay. Some of these abuses were highlighted by the Industrial Affairs correspondent of The Irish Times.
In practice the permit system was an aid to those employers who wanted to replace the Irish workforce with cheap labour. Workers were tied to employers, lived in continual fear of their permit being withdrawn and being sent back to their country.
Let us contrast how Dublin building workers and the Labour Party leaders have faced up to the problem. Dublin building workers have demanded equal rights for all those who work in the industry. They have held work stoppages, organised marches, and meetings and lobbied politicians. They have put forward a set of demands which they believe would bring an end to this exploitation.
They have called on the Government to (1) introduce severe penalties for those employers who do not pay the terms and conditions of the, legally binding, registered agreement; (2) ensure that no public contract will be awarded to any company which will not guarantee that all workers on those projects are covered by the registered employment agreement for the industry; (3) ensure a sufficient inspectorate is available to enforce the registered agreement.
Which is the way forward? The, in my view, honourable stand taken by building workers or the backward step to slave labour proposed by Mr Rabbitte? - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL FINNEGAN,
Chairperson,
The Workers' Party,
Dublin Region,
Dublin 1.