Article today in the Irish Independent:
[i]'No Irish need apply' - the signs are already going up on building sites abroad in the throwback to the grim days of the last century.
But this time they are starting to appear in Poland as that country takes its revenge for the way in which some unscrupulous Irish contractors treated their countrymen during the years of the Celtic Tiger.[i][/i]Trade Union Official Michael Kilcoyne - also president of Consumers Assoc of Ireland - said it had recently been brought to his attention that the [/i]'No Irish' signshad appeared on a couple of Polish building sites where workers were being sought.
Mr. Kilcoyne said: "The reality is that our international reputation as employers has been sullied. Many foreign people who have worked here, especially during our boom years, have had bad experiences.
"The evidence of thsi is in the number of Labour Relations Commission over the last year or two in respect of unpaid wages or holiday money that was not paid.
"Irelands good name as a good place to work has been badly damaged by such contractors who held onto the money of their workers."
Mr. Kilcoyne revealed that he had personally won 14 such cases in Galway, while he belived there were hundreds, if not thousands, of similiar awards made countrywide against employers and in facour of non-national workers who had been short-changed.
I am not surprised by this story.... I have heard a lot of disturbing stories about the way some workers have been treated.....What goes around comes around - but I think the contractors who caused this wont be the ones the suffer.
[i]'No Irish need apply' - the signs are already going up on building sites abroad in the throwback to the grim days of the last century.
But this time they are starting to appear in Poland as that country takes its revenge for the way in which some unscrupulous Irish contractors treated their countrymen during the years of the Celtic Tiger.[i][/i]Trade Union Official Michael Kilcoyne - also president of Consumers Assoc of Ireland - said it had recently been brought to his attention that the [/i]'No Irish' signshad appeared on a couple of Polish building sites where workers were being sought.
Mr. Kilcoyne said: "The reality is that our international reputation as employers has been sullied. Many foreign people who have worked here, especially during our boom years, have had bad experiences.
"The evidence of thsi is in the number of Labour Relations Commission over the last year or two in respect of unpaid wages or holiday money that was not paid.
"Irelands good name as a good place to work has been badly damaged by such contractors who held onto the money of their workers."
Mr. Kilcoyne revealed that he had personally won 14 such cases in Galway, while he belived there were hundreds, if not thousands, of similiar awards made countrywide against employers and in facour of non-national workers who had been short-changed.
I am not surprised by this story.... I have heard a lot of disturbing stories about the way some workers have been treated.....What goes around comes around - but I think the contractors who caused this wont be the ones the suffer.