Siptu has stressed that it is not opposed to Romanian workers coming to this State but the union has warned that some employers are trying to exploit people by telling them they have to be self-employed.
Siptu president Jack O'Connor said migrant workers were "very welcome and absolutely essential" in this economy. Ten per cent of Siptu members were from overseas and the union had three full-time organisers for eastern Europe members, he said.
"But the question is whether or not they are being exploited and, if they are being exploited, are they being used to undermine hard-won labour standards here?" he asked.
The Irish Timesreported last week there had been a large increase in Romanians entering the State since the beginning of the year. However, Romanians cannot work here unless they are self-employed or have a work permit. There is no evidence of large numbers of work permits being issued but 3,164 Romanians were allocated personal public service (PPS) numbers in January. This compared to just 813 for all of 2006.
Mr O'Connor said employers in sectors such as construction were telling prospective workers that they could get work but they would have to become self-employed. This meant employers could evade responsibilities such as social insurance, pension, holiday provisions and occupational injury.
Mr O'Connor pointed to figures from the Central Statistics Office which showed that, in the year up to last August, 25,000 jobs were created in construction. "But if you look closely at them, about half of those were self-employed and if you look closely again, more than half of them were migrant workers."
He said it was unrealistic to believe that half of all the jobs created in any industry could be on a legitimate self-employed basis.
