A complaint made two years ago about alleged exploitation of staff by a Dublin restaurant has yet to be investigated by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, writes Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent.
An appointment to visit the restaurant has been made for later this month, on foot of the complaint made in July 2001, a Department spokesman has confirmed. No action had been taken until now as priority had been given to more serious cases, he said.
The complaint was made after a waiter at the restaurant, who was from Bangladesh, told a customer he was working 12 to 14 hours a day and being paid 70p an hour. He also alleged he had to share an apartment, provided by his employer, with 10 other waiters.
The customer reported the allegations to the Department's labour inspectorate, which carries out checks to ensure employers met minimum wage and other obligations towards staff. An appointment was subsequently made by an inspector with the restaurant's accountant.
This meeting, it is understood, was to have taken place in August 2002, but was cancelled by the accountant because of a bereavement. It has been rescheduled, it is understood, as a result of a decision by the inspectorate to target specific groups of vulnerable employees. It is not known if the waiter who made the allegations is still on the restaurant's staff.
The Department spokesman said a "non-specific complaint" had been made by a third party. "It was not acted upon in order to allow other more serious complaints to be prioritised. Notwithstanding that, a visit to the firm is planned for later this month."
It was learned recently that the number of workplace visits by the labour inspectorate fell sharply for four months this year when a new computer system was being installed. All 17 inspectors were confined to the office for most of the time the system was being set up. The Department said it was necessary to have all the inspectors present while the "complex" system was being installed and tested.
It also denied its annual inspection figures provided an exaggerated picture of its work. The Irish Times established that calls by inspectors to premises which had nobody present or to distribute leaflets about the minimum wage, were included in the 8,500 "inspections" recorded last year.