Gama workers await agreement confirmation

Turkish workers involved in a pay dispute with Gama Construction will maintain a work stoppage until they receive confirmation…

Turkish workers involved in a pay dispute with Gama Construction will maintain a work stoppage until they receive confirmation of an agreement with the company.

After a seven-week strike, the workers and the Turkish company accepted recommendations by the Labour Court, which were issued on Friday.

The bitter dispute began when 300 of the workers claimed they were paid between € 2 and € 3 an hour for an 80-hour week. Most of those involved in the protests returned home to Turkey but 80 remained.

The Labour Court recommended a lump sum of € 8,000 to be paid for every year of service to each worker in respect of the alleged underpayments of overtime. Most have worked an average of three years.

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It said payments would be in full and final discharge of the workers' overtime claims and no worker should receive less than €2,000.

Each worker would also receive an ex gratia payment of one month's salary on completion of their contracts.

The recommendations were accepted by the workers represented by Siptu on Friday at a meeting in Liberty Hall.

The company at first sought clarifications but over the weekend said it accepted the recommendations.

In a statement, it said: "Gama announces that it has received the clarifications sought from the Labour Court and has accepted the court's recommendations. Gama thanks the court for its hard work in bringing the parties to agreement."

However, yesterday Siptu national industrial secretary Noel Dowling said the pickets would be lifted on the sites but the workers involved would not be returning to work.

"They want confirmation of the agreement. The first thing the company has to do is give details of how much money each worker will receive and then they want it in their bank accounts," he said.

He expected the confirmation to be given tomorrow or Wednesday. Meanwhile the workers would not be working and would remain in the compound in Ballymun. Mr Dowling added that it was possible the majority of the 80 men would then go back to Turkey as they had been away from their families for a long time.

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins, who has campaigned on behalf of the workers, said yesterday the settlement was a complete vindication of their claims of huge exploitation, which Gama had denied.

"The workers accepted the settlement of €8,000 per year but in reality the company should be paying over €20,000 a year to them. Gama escaped lightly," he added.

The workers accepted the recommendations because they could not wait the 18 months it would take to go through the courts.

"It is a trenchant statement of our legislation, which has failed the workers," Mr Higgins said.