Four Brazilian nationals who claim they were hired to work as cleaners in Ireland and were left without pay for "weeks on end" will today seek damages in the High Court.
The four, members of the same family, said they were forced to work long hours without breaks and were threatened with eviction and dismissal when they decided to consult a solicitor.
Their claims have been denied by Ms Samantha Hutton, the secretary of At Hand Cleaning Services, the company which the Brazilians said employed them.
Ms Hutton said she employed only one of the four and "categorically" denied the other three worked for her.
This has been contradicted, however, by a Dublin GP who said Ms Hutton personally accompanied three of the four when they arrived to clean his home after he placed a call to her company.
The four - Neusa da Silva Resende, her sisters Nilce Mara and Nilma, and Nilma's husband Elis Pereira da Silva - are from Mato Grosso do Sul in south-west Brazil. They said they were recruited in Sao Paulo.
Ms da Silva Resende came to work for Ms Hutton's company in May last year. In an affidavit previously opened in the High Court, she said she was told before her arrival she would be paid £1,200 (€1,524) a month net of taxes.
She received only £747 (€949) and was required to work at least 12 hours a day without breaks. Payment was "extremely sporadic" and she often went without pay for "weeks on end", she said.
"On occasion I was required to work from 8 a.m. until 2 a.m. without any break and in circumstances where, because I had not been paid any remuneration for a period of five weeks or more, I was not in a position to provide any food or sustenance for myself," the affidavit said.
Ms da Silva Resende said that when her 16-year-old daughter, Francini, came to visit her on holidays, she was refused time off.
"In fact my daughter worked for the defendant [At Hand Cleaning Services] under similar conditions for approximately six weeks while here on vacation."
Her sister, Ms Nilce Mara, came to Ireland last March after Ms Hutton "asked me to recruit her and introduce her to the company".
Ms Nilce Mara worked an average of 52 hours a week, the affidavit claimed.
Ms Hutton, however, in a replying affidavit also opened at a previous hearing, said Ms Nilce Mara came to Ireland on a holiday visa and she never employed her.
Ms da Silva Resende, she said, alerted her to the fact that Ms Nilce Mara was working with her because she was "allegedly bored" when her sister went out to work.
Ms Hutton claimed she was "completely unaware" of the arrival of the third sister, Nilma, and her husband Elis, in Ireland last July. Ms da Silva Resende told the court the couple came after Ms Hutton applied "increasing pressure" on her to do "more and more work" and to try to recruit more workers from Brazil.
The four, who are represented by solicitor Mr Donal Taaffe, lived together in Tallaght in a house provided by Ms Hutton's company, and "worked together as a team" from July 25th, they said.
Ms da Silva Resende said her neighbour, Ms Rose Cooney, witnessed the four being collected in a company van to go to work. The van had its windows blacked out with black plastic bags. Ms da Silva Resende said she believed this was to prevent them from identifying the locations in which they worked.
Ms Hutton, in her affidavit, said she had no involvement in the arrival of Nilce Mara, Nilma and Elis Pereira da Silva in the State and never employed them.
In an affidavit read to the court last week, however, Dr Tony Holohan said Ms Hutton accompanied the three sisters by taxi to his house in August, when they arrived to clean the property, and apologised for their late arrival.
Counsel for Ms Hutton told Mr Justice Peter Kelly last week that she was seeking corroborating evidence to rebut Dr Holohan's claim.
Dr Holohan said he is prepared to give evidence to the court.
Ms Hutton, who denied all of Ms da Silva Resende's claims, said she has lost three cleaning contracts as a result of newspaper reports of a previous court hearing in the case.
That hearing was told that the cleaners had worked at clients of Ms Hutton's, including Hibernia Computer Services in Ballsbridge, Golden Vale in Tallaght, UPVC Windows in Clondalkin, JVC Recycling in Cookstown industrial estate and St Margaret's Golf Club in Co Dublin.
The cleaners' claim for unpaid wages and damages, and an order that they be issued with payslips and P60s detailing their hours worked and deductions from their pay, is to be heard by Mr Justice Kelly in the High Court this morning.
