THE IRISH Labour Court has awarded Gama workers €8,000 per annum
for unpaid overtime – a stunning admission of how this construction
multinational ripped off its workforce.
For four years GAMA operated a ruthless machine of exploitation of
its Turkish workers in Ireland, until being exposed by Socialist Party
councillor Mick Murphy and Socialist Party TD (MP) Joe Higgins.
GAMA workers were forced to work up to 84 hours a week, in all kinds
of weather, for as little as €2.20 an hour (£1.50) – instead of the
€8 claimed to have been paid by the company.
Faced with investigation after Joe used the Irish Parliament to raise
the plight of these workers, Gama claimed it had deposited the rest of
the workers’ wages in accounts in a Dutch-based bank called Finansbank.
The workers knew nothing about these accounts, so Joe and Mick took
four former Gama employees to Amsterdam and walked into Finansbank to
demand the workers access to their accounts.
An estimated 30-40 million euros in workers’ money is deposited in
Finansbank.
With the backing of the Socialist Party the Gama workers overcame the
climate of intimidation as migrant workers living on site and struck to
demand their rights.
After eight weeks of work stoppage Gama workers have voted to accept
the Labour Court proposal of €8,000 per year worked plus one month’s
wages.
However, the award falls far short of what workers should have been
paid for the massive amount of overtime worked.
The Irish government now has a huge responsibility to force Gama to
pay the settlement within days.
The trade union movement must now move immediately to a major
organisation of all migrant workers to ensure this.
