Sixteen Romanian construction workers who were working on a Co Dublin building site without permits are to have their status legalised.
"We made representations to the Minister for Labour Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt," said Mr Eric Fleming, SIPTU's Dublin construction branch secretary, yesterday. "They were clearly being exploited by the agency who brought them over and were in receipt of the wrong rate of pay, the wrong travel allowance and appeared to be paying some kind of levy in the order of £30 per week."
The workers are now to be issued with work permits and to be compensated by the main building contractor as well as the agency responsible, Mr Fleming added.