GAMA Report Gag

national | worker & community struggles and protests | press release

Wednesday June 15, 2005 12:18

by Joe Higgins T.D. - Socialist Party

High Court rules that exploitative companies can hide behind inadequate legislation on workers’ rights

Current laws and court procedures heavily favour bosses over exploited workers

The refusal of the High Court yesterday to allow the Labour Inspectorate to publish its report into exploitation by GAMA Construction of its Turkish workforce, amounts to the outrageous situation whereby companies that ruthlessly exploit their workers can hide behind the laws and courts of the land. If it were to depend on current legislation and the High Court, GAMA’s regime of extreme exploitation would never have been brought to light and no justice would be won for the workers who suffered exploitation.

It is quite clear now that current labour law is utterly inadequate in defending the rights of vulnerable workers whether they are Irish or migrant workers.

There is no mechanism in Irish law by which vulnerable workers can speedily have a hearing of their complaints of exploitation and a vindication of their rights. Low paid Irish or migrant workers simply cannot compete with the wealth of their employers in resorting to the courts.

In the case of GAMA, fortunately, we were able to prove conclusively the extent of worker exploitation in that company. The tens of millions of euro which were found hidden in Finansbank Holland in Amsterdam and the Labour Court settlement by which GAMA agreed to pay workers €8,000 overtime in respect of each year worked, effectively proved the point. Most of all, the brave strike action undertaken for an eight- week period by the Turkish workers, showed the world what they had suffered at the hands of this multinational.

The best defence by workers whether Irish or migrant against exploitation is a strong and active trade union movement. The need for this is particularly acute now with the use by employers of Eastern European workers in an attempt to undercut trade union rates of pay and conditions in this state. The trade unions themselves have many lessons to learn from the GAMA experience. What it poses most strongly is that the unions need to proactively engage with migrant workers, recruit them to the unions and ensure that they can make common cause with their fellow Irish workers.

However, the law must also be changed. Obviously, the Labour Inspectorate and the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment should be enabled to publish reports of their investigations into exploitation. But much more is needed.

The Labour Relations Commission and the Labour Court are not places where workers can get justice when their employers resist. A mechanism needs to be put in place urgently, by which workers who are being exploited can seek immediate redress, get an immediate hearing and get immediate action by the state. This is in contrast to the present position where it can take years for workers’ complaints to wind their way tortuously through the courts.