The plight of the 13 periwinkle pickers shows that exploitation of immigrant workers is still widespread, writes Carl O'Brien
As they approached the island through the darkness, the lifeboat crew could just about make out a group of people huddled around a dim fire. "There was no way they were prepared for a night on the island," says Niall McGrotty, lifeboat operations manager at the RNLI in Skerries. "The forecast that night was for gale force winds and driving rain."
The 13 Latvian workers, dressed in light clothes, had been dropped off at Colt Island, a bleak rocky outcrop of an island just off the north Dublin coastline on Saturday afternoon. There were picking periwinkles during the day and were due to be picked up by the Irish boatman later on.
With darkness drawing in, his boat apparently developed engine trouble. The Latvians say they were told via mobile phone they couldn't be collected until the next day.
"It was just fortunate that we were there," McGrotty says. "It brought back memories of Morecambe Bay [when 21 Chinese cockle pickers drowned]. We were just happy to be able to help."
When reports of their treatment filtered into the media, there was a swift outcry. The boatman was interviewed by gardaí. Three separate investigations were launched involving the the Health and Safety Authority and the Department of the Marine and the Garda.
As well as dominating the news here, it made headlines in Latvia too. A man claiming to be one of those stranded on the island told Latvian radio the incident had been blown out of proportion. A boat had been due to pick them up, he insisted. The workers, however, disappeared off the radar screen, leaving authorities unable to verify what happened.
Whatever the truth of what occurred, it raised once again the ugly spectre of mistreatment of migrant workers.The accession of eastern European countries into the EU was meant to change all that. They would no longer need work permits and would finally be unshackled from a system which some support groups have compared to a form of bonded labour.
Since accession more than 130,000 Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers have been issued to workers from the new member states who now no longer require a work permit. The majority have come from Poland (70,000), Lithuania (25,500), Latvia (12,600), Slovakia (11,100) and the Czech Republic (6,300). Many are doing reasonably well. The average weekly earnings for such workers, based on a statistical sample, was €418.75, or around €21,700 a year, in 2004.
However, Government labour inspectors are investigating hundreds of cases of alleged mistreatment of foreign nationals. The number of cases coming before the Labour Relations Commission involving migrant workers continues to spiral upwards. The plight of the periwinkle pickers is the latest, albeit most extreme example, of what unions and migrant support groups say is becoming the casual, regular, everyday exploitation of immigrant workers
Exploitation is now no longer as simple as failing to pay the minimum wage: it's forcing people to work without overtime, no extra pay for weekends, no holiday pay, dismissals for being sick or getting injured. Trade unions and groups have encountered exploitation of migrant workers in low-skilled jobs in every industry from construction to services to the unregulated domestic work sector.
WHILE MEDIA COVERAGE of Ireland in Eastern Europe has tended to depict the country as a prosperous place of opportunity where workers can make their fortunes, the stories of exploitation and mistreatment filtering back home are beginning to provide a grittier counterpoint. At the Latvian embassy on Lower Leeson Street, is receiving growing numbers of queries daily from newly-arrived Latvians seeking work, officials say they are increasingly disturbed at evidence of mistreatment.
"The majority of employers are really very good and are treating workers very well," says Ivars Lasis, first secretary at the Latvian Embassy. "But some do take advantage. We get reports of underpayment, no holiday pay, improper deductions . . . We try to provide workers with the information they need so they are better prepared. There are people who do not receive a PPS number when they go to work. We are concerned about that because it is important in case something goes wrong."
Any hopes that accession would help flush out improper work practices were quickly dashed, says Anton McCabe of Siptu. He has been supporting migrant workers in Ireland for the last six years and has seen some of the worst effects of exploitation and mistreatment in more recent times.
"As soon as the curtain was lifted, the economic migrants there were here on work permits have gone on to better-paid jobs and have more command of the language. The new people coming in are taking over more menial jobs. We're seeing the same kind of exploitation, and worse in some cases." Some sectors have a worse reputation than others. Whereas once the meat industry had a bad name for mistreatment of workers, now that mantle appears to have been passed onto the mushroom industry.
A number of cases, details of which were seen by The Irish Times and which are due to come before the Labour Court shortly, show evidence of systematic underpayment and illegal deductions from migrant workers at a number of mushroom farms in the midlands and west. Files at the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland bulge with allegations of mistreatment of such workers and claims of health problems resulting from overexposure to chemicals. Yet these are just the cases that go to official level. Many never do, say those working with migrant workers, because of fear over the consequences of speaking out.
"I met a group of Ukrainian women, some of whom were raising money to pay for their children to go to college," says McCabe, regarding a mushroom farm in the midlands. "Their main worry was that chemicals were being pumped into the tunnels. They were getting nauseous, having to run out to vomit and go back in again. When I told them I could alert the Health and Safety about it, they wanted nothing to do with it. They felt if they were identified as complainants, they'd lose their job."
Their fears appear to be well founded. A new study commissioned by the Labour Relations Commission has found that almost all workers who attempt to have their rights vindicated following mistreatment by an employer had left, or been dismissed from, the employment before they were in a position to take any remedial action. The study, by Mary Hyland, a communications and research consultant, found that despite claimants' fears and concerns in pursuing a case in one of the dispute resolution agencies, in the vast majority of cases the outcome is in favour of the claimant.
In relation to Rights Commissioner hearings, for instance, 80 per cent of migrant worker claims were settled in favour of the claimants in 2002, with this figure rising to 85 per cent in 2003. This figure is substantially higher than among the general population.
"This indicates that the system does work to vindicate those who are wronged," writes Hyland. "Where an exploited worker has the capacity, the wherewithal and the support to see a claim through the full process, there is a very strong likelihood that they will have the wrong acknowledged and be awarded redress."
THERE IS STILL widespread ignorance among migrant workers on their rights and entitlements, however. Groups such as the Immigrant Council of Ireland and the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland have been seeking to address this through the publication of information booklets and fact sheets on rights and entitlements.
While the Government has been talking up its plans to tackle exploitation, there are question marks over its commitment.
The number of workplace inspections has fallen from 8,372 in 2002 to 5,160 last year. There are just 21 labour inspectors to monitor employers across the State, with plans to increase the complement to 31. This figure, says Mike Jennings of Siptu, is still less than the number of dog wardens in the State.
"If we're going to be serious about respecting workers' rights and trying to prevent exploitation, we need to be doing much, much more," says Siobhán O'Donoghue of the Migrant Rights Centre. "We need to be looking at the extent and depth of exploitation, re-thinking access to redress and methods of enforcement. Without that, the conditions are created for gross exploitation and in some cases, as we saw this week, endangering people's lives."