A Portuguese man who was brought to Ireland to work on a road project has spoken of the "prison" he and his colleagues were forced to live in for nearly two years.
Felipe Figueiredo (32) was one of 27 foreign workers who successfully sued the three Portuguese companies which hired them to work on the N7 Nenagh to Limerick dual carriageway.
In his judgment, High Court judge Mr Justice David Keane said Mr Figueiredo and his compatriots were entitled to recover damages thought to be about €1.5 million, after their employer, trading under the name RAC Éire partnership, deducted monthly amounts of €520 for their "deplorable, even dangerous" on-site accommodation.
Speaking to The Irish Times, Mr Figueiredo recounted how he and his colleagues slept in small rooms with up to three others, had cold showers and were denied the opportunity to leave the "freezing" compound during their time off.
“They offered me a job there, they told me ‘we’re going to pay you much better than in Portugal’ so I accepted. On the day of travel to Ireland they gave me a contract and I signed it in the airport seat before I got on the plane,” he said.
Despite being told that food, laundry, transport and accommodation would be “taken care of”, they soon realised that large deductions were being taken to pay for such services.
Apart from a two-week period during which the site was under inspection by what Mr Figueiredo believed to be a government workplace compliance agency, he said the Portuguese men were made work 12- and 13-hour days, including 7am to 5pm on Saturdays.
“We didn’t have the right to complain about anything. I remember one day I was sick and I went to the office asking for someone to bring me to the hospital because I felt really bad. They told me ‘today we can’t but tomorrow’,” he said.
"I said I might die tomorrow, and they answered, 'if you die we'll bring you directly to Portugal, don't worry about that'."
Although they were initially allowed go to nearby Nenagh to socialise and shop for a couple of hours on Saturdays, Mr Figueiredo said the practice was discontinued after his employers found out some of his co-workers had driven the site’s minibus to Galway for a talk on workers’ rights in early 2008.
When he left the site in 2009 Mr Figueiredo returned to Portugal with little money, but relishing the freedom. “I lived in a prison. I still love the country, I still love the weather and the partying there, but I lived in a prison.”
He is happy that a large sum will be awarded to the complainants – who represent just a fraction of the 180 people who worked on the site – but said true justice would only be served by making his former bosses live in the same degrading conditions for a period.
RAC Éire declined to comment.