Minister for Enterprise Micheál Martin today appealed to Gama workers not to embark on a threatened hunger strike.
"I would appeal for anyone not to go on hunger strike," he said. "I understand their position, I understand where they're coming from. My understanding is both sides are being called into the Labour Relations Commission.
"I would urge, and I'm saying to both sides that I expect both of them to turn up on Monday. I expect Gama to turn up on Monday and I expect the workers to turn up on Monday, " he added.
In a statement this afternoon, Gama said Siptu picketing of the company was illegal and an attempt to force the company to make unjustified concessions on overtime claims in advance of Labour Relations Commission talks.
"There is no lockout at Gama and Siptu is disingenuous to describe it as such. Siptu gave the company no notice of the intention to call an official strike."
The statement also denies claims employee grievances are not being dealt with. "Gama agreed to attend the Labour Relations Commission on condition that pickets be lifted and intimidation cease. Both of these conditions have now been deliberately breached by Siptu."
The 85 Turkish workers embroiled in a row with Gama Constuction have threatened to go on hunger strike unless they receive back pay they claim is owed to them.
The workers have been on strike for months over what they claim is the underpayment of millions of euro by Gama for work on Irish building sites. They say they worked for up to 84 hours a week for as little as €2.20 per hour.
In a statement read by one of the workers to a press conference yesterday afternoon, they said they had worked hard for Gama for long hours and had been repaid with "poverty and hardship".
According to Siptu, up to €40 million in back pay is owed to some 300 workers. Of these, over 200 have returned to Turkey due to what they claim is intimidation and harassment by Gama of their families. Socialist TD Joe Higgins, who first raised the issue in the Dáil last February, said today that the 85 remaining workers had been sacked.
Gama has dismissed the claims of intimidation as without foundation. "Intimidation is in fact happening against Gama staff who wish to continue working," the company said in a statement. It says the ongoing strike is illegal.
The company also rejected claims by Mr Higgins that workers had been sacked or locked out of their workplace and living quarters.