Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 July 2006
349 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of cases involving exploitation of foreign workers that have been taken in 2003, 2004, 2005 and to date in 2006; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27765/06]
View answerThe Labour Inspectorate of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is responsible for monitoring certain employment conditions for all categories of workers in Ireland, including foreign workers. The Inspectorate operates without any differentiation with regard to worker nationality as statutory employment rights and protections apply to foreign workers in exactly the same manner as they do to other Irish workers. Accordingly, the Labour Inspectorate does not record its cases in a format that would facilitate the statistics requested.
For the avoidance of doubt Section 20 of the Protection of Employee's (Part-Time) Work Act, 2001 provides that all employee protection legislation on the Statute Book in Ireland applies to workers posted to work in Ireland in line with Directive 96/71/EC of the European Parliament and Council of 16 December 1996.
Section 20 of the 2001 Act also provides that all employee protection legislation applies to a person, irrespective of his or her nationality or place of residence, who has entered into a contract of employment that provides for his or her being employed in the State or who works in the State under a contract of employment. Thus all Employment Rights Legislation applies to migrant workers engaged to work in Ireland under a contract of employment.
In instances where foreign workers are paid less than Irish workers for comparable work and there are no other relevant differentiating features, it may be appropriate to refer the matter to the Equality Authority for consideration under Equality Legislation.
