Workers at Gama Construction are to ballot for industrial action amid heightening tensions between management and employees at a number of the company's sites.
Both sides in the row over alleged exploitation of Turkish workers accused the other of intimidation yesterday as an unofficial stoppage by several hundred workers continued.
Gardaí were called to one Gama site at Ennis, Co Clare, where a stand-off arose between workers involved in a protest and other company employees.
Meanwhile, officials from the Department of Social and Family Affairs told Siptu representatives at a meeting yesterday afternoon that support arrangements for workers taken off the company's payroll would be considered.
The union, however, claimed many of the workers were now "destitute" and required urgent assistance from the State.
Up to 300 of the company's Turkish workers began a stoppage several weeks ago, in a dispute over pay and conditions.
Gama responded by removing 230 workers from its payroll and asking them to vacate their accommodation by yesterday.
It also stopped providing food earlier this week for workers involved in the stoppage.
In a statement yesterday, the company said there was "no question" of any worker being evicted, and canteens at sites in Dublin occupied by workers would be replenished with food.
Siptu construction branch secretary Eric Fleming said this had still not happened by yesterday evening, and the union was continuing to provide food for the workers.
The workers were not in receipt of strike pay as they were not officially on strike, but a ballot for industrial action was in train and would take place next week.
Work at the company's Ballymun site has already stopped, as a result of what a Gama spokesman described as intimidation of workers by those in dispute with the company. He said about 250 Turkish and Irish employees, and 40 sub-contractors, had been prevented from working at the site yesterday.
It was clear there had been "heavy intimidation" of workers at Ballymun and another Gama site at Balgaddy in west Dublin, he claimed.
This was rejected by Mr Fleming, who said Siptu was "sick" of hearing allegations of intimidation by the company.
Mr Fleming claimed physical threats had been made against workers involved in the protest against the company and said he intended to contact the Department of Justice about the matter.
The Gama spokesman said 110 Turkish employees were working as normal at its site at Ennis, but about 30 were engaged in a stoppage. "The 110 are very upset that their work is being interfered with by the 30 protesters."
A Garda spokeswoman confirmed that a superintendent and two gardaí visited the site yesterday.
Mr Fleming claimed the workers removed from Gama's payroll were suffering severe financial hardship and could not afford to pay for public transport or phone cards to contact relatives in Turkey.
"They haven't a rex. They haven't a shilling," he said.
Gama, a multi-national construction company with headquarters in Turkey, has been under scrutiny since Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins accused it in the Dáil in February of paying Turkish workers between €2 and €3 an hour and making them work "grotesque" hours.
An investigation by the labour inspectorate of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has since been completed, but is being challenged in the courts by Gama.
The company began operating in Ireland in 2000 and has been involved in major construction projects, including the Huntstown and Tynagh power stations, Ennis and Ballincollig bypasses, and local authority housing developments. The majority of its 1,000-plus workers in Ireland are from Turkey.
