The Government has come in for criticism after its was revealed today that the State's labour inspectorate is under-resourced. The news emerged as talks between Gama, the Turkish firm investigated by the inspectorate over allegations or worker mistreatment, and Siptu continue.
The Irish Timestoday revealed a report showing the inspectorate is understaffed, and lacks other supports such as adequate training and in-house legal back-up, to carry out its function in ensuring full compliance with employment legislation.
Labour Party spokesperson on enterprise, trade and employment, Brendan Howlin said: "It is entirely unsatisfactory to have only 21 inspectors to police two million workers in all industries. Workplace inspections have dropped from 7,168 in 2003 to 5,160 in 2004.
"Prosecutions have fallen from 20 to just 14. At the same time hardly a week goes by without a story detailing the exploitation and abuse of workers by their employer."
The president of the Civil and Public Service Union (CPSU) Betty Tyrrell-Collard agreed: "There are simply too few inspectors to do the job properly," she said.
"It should be a central objective of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in the negotiations for any future national wage agreement that a fully-resourced labour inspectorate be established," she told the union's annual conference.
She also called for work permits to be held by migrant workers themselves, rather than employers as is the case at present.
SIPTU has called for fraud detectives to investigate Gama if the labour inspectors' report reveals that workers' wages were hidden in foreign bank accounts.
The workers staged another demonstration late this afternoon in Dublin where they called for publication of the report.