Turkish workers in dispute with Gama Construction over pay and conditions were told yesterday they are to be removed from its payroll and asked to vacate their accommodation, writes Chris Dooley, Industry and Employment Correspondent.
Siptu, the union representing most of Gama's 800 Turkish workers in Ireland, described the development as "very sinister".
It has asked the Irish Congress of Trade Unions to convene a meeting of all the company's unions on Monday to plan a co-ordinated response.
At least 230 Gama employees are affected by the move, including 130 for whom the company says it has no work. It wants to repatriate them to Turkey.
A number of Gama's Turkish employees have refused to work in recent weeks and have staged protests against the company.
Yesterday's move by Gama came within hours of a High Court decision preventing publication of a labour inspectors' report on the company, pending further proceedings.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly, however, said the report could be released to the Garda fraud squad, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Revenue Commissioners, the director of corporate enforcement, the Competition Authority and the Garda National Immigration Bureau.
The report was prepared for Minister for Employment Micheál Martin after Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins claimed in the Dáil that Gama, a Turkish-based multinational construction company, was engaged in "immigrant worker exploitation of massive proportions".
Siptu construction branch secretary Eric Fleming said the union received notice from Gama late yesterday that workers involved in the dispute at the company would be removed from the payroll on Monday. They were also being asked to leave accommodation provided by Gama at its various sites by next Friday, he said.
In a statement, Gama said that about 130 workers "due for repatriation" to jobs in Turkey and elsewhere had been occupying company premises in Lucan, Co Dublin, for more than two weeks.
Gama had had no work in Ireland for this group for a number of weeks, but had delayed repatriation at the request of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the company said.
It said that an additional 100 Turkish workers had joined the protest against the company and were refusing to work. Gama had advised Siptu it would cease to pay the 230 unless they returned to Turkey or went back to their jobs in Ireland.