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TRADE UNION SIPTU and the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI) have launched a short social justice film documenting the experiences of low wage migrant workers.
‘Food for Thought’ is informed by research carried out by the MRCI last year with 120 migrant restaurant workers which identified non-compliance and exploitation as an on-going concern in the sector.
MCRI said the film shares migrant worker experiences of poor working conditions, exploitation and the struggle to live and work with dignity. The video also includes interviews with trade unionists, economists and worker leaders.
SIPTU Services Division Organiser, John King, said non-compliance with basic employment law, such as the national minimum wage, is a “chronic problem” for low wage workers today.
“The National Employment Rights Authority’s (NERA) most recent report, on the back of almost one thousand inspections, found only a 51 per cent compliance rate with the National Minimum Wage,” he said.
Speaking at the launch in Liberty Hall in Dublin today, worker leader and chef, Enamur Chowdhury, said: “In the past I suffered exploitation at the hands of my employer. I refuse to stand by and let that happen to other workers.”
“The film shares our stories but is also a message from good employers that it is possible to uphold the law and still run a profitable business. It also highlights some of the changes needed such as the right of work permit holders to change jobs more freely,” he added.
(Video: Migrant Rights Centre Ireland/Vimeo)
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Irish workers are treated badly too it’s not just immigrant workers that are treated poorly Fact!
How about the plight of no-roof, no-foof Irish people. I see more and more on the streets, all Irish, our own people. Time we looked after our own Irish people, we have given billions of aid money to Africa etc and millions of man hours in volunteer work, medical aid, engineering, education and school projects, we do not owe anyone anything, we do owe it to ourselves to help ourselves now.
* no-food
Totally agree Brian,not long ago 4million went “missing in Uganda”which they gave us back and we in return are given it back?they only gave it back after been caught to ensure future payments kept comming
> Póg mo thoine, shortly after we gave Uganda €38 Million, their government splashed out €600+ on new supersonic fighter jets.
It is indeed, time to look after our own, & leave all those so-called 3rd world countries to sort out their own problems.
We are actually doing them a disservice, by reducing their incentive to progress beyond international ‘welare’.
ps. I have personally met dozens of ‘asylum seekers’ and from conversations we had, it was patently obvious that not one of them was genuine, Many are ‘absconders’ from the UK, who were awaiting deportation, They just change their name & say their id. was stolen or lost, – then Bingo, free lodgings, food and allowance, + a cash job on the sly.
Most if not all of these migrant workes are treated this way by their own fellow countrymen or non Irish employers, fact non irish employers are the real problem here
Monday is Promote Your Quango Day on The Journal! We have some of the best workers rights in Europe here in Ireland! How many more stories can you do on how Ireland treats its Immigrants so badly?
Totally agree, some of our unions should try working in other countries for a while and then see if they want to complain about foreign workers rights in Ireland. Looks like the unions are just on a recruitment drive to get more members to pay their high salaries.
I agree its got to the stage we are been taken for a compensation fueled easy target.its not about rights its about getting into a country and trying to get 100k in some form of discrimination claim to set themselves up.
Honestly if its so bad here why are they comming in containers to beat the band?
@John F. There is nothing particularly wrong with worker rights in Ireland, except when people who don’t know what these rights are are being taken advantage of.
@pog mo thoine: my understanding is there isn’t any compensation for pain and suffering or other elements that can make you rich for being discriminated against. I’m happy to be corrected, but I believe you can only be paid for proven losses (e.g. the shortfall between actual pay and minimum wage, overtime that wasn’t paid, or any direct costs incurred).
Emmmmm, cos conditions in their own countries are so godawful.
Just because a person comes here from some crumby kip doesn’t mean that they should be treated in an inferior way to an Irish citizen.
@sally @stephen,they aren’t been treated any different as Irish people its a few isolated cases that attract media attention but there is a massive amount of Irish been discriminated against compared to their minor few.
They should be happy they have somewhere to go to get food and shelter while Irish citizens live homeless with nothing to eat
If the fat cat union leaders of untie and SIPTU want to make a start by donating their fat salaries to the people they are so concerned about, go right ahead. It’s a lot more then they ever did for the Irish people.
@ John F, they are either slaves to the press releases put out by these taxpayer funded sinkholes, or else there’s an editorial agenda at play.
Or, maybe it’s a bit of both!
At least I’m not the only one that’s noticed it :)
There is a perfect solution to this problem. It’s called an aeroplane, and if people are so unhappy with their life here then they can get on one and go back home.
Aeroplanes – the cause of and solution to most of life’s problems!
Are you suggesting that people legally resident in this State are not entitled to protection from abuses of employment law and instead of having their rights looked after they should just leave the country? Do you apply the same view to the millions of Irish who have legally resided in other countries over the generations?
@pog At least you are honest about your disgusting racist attitude. I asusme that neither you nor anyone you care about has ever lived abroad.
@diarmid,been white ain’t all its cracked up to be..we are hated by all other races the white Irish were the first recorded slaves in the world.in the countries these people come from white people get beaten raped tortured but that’s ok with you?
Diarmaid
Get real. Show where the racism is? Remember this is our home, usually people are invited. When did we invite or have a say or proper discussion or debate on allowing in all these people?
To be against or to oppose immigration policy, is not racist, it is in fact a right and a duty by the original indigenous inhabitants of this island who were bequeathed it and all it’s resources as a gift, by their ancestors.
It is not free and it did not come free, it was paid for in blood over many generations, this land and it’s resources belong to the indigenous people of this island. That is not racist and does not infer a hate of any other people. We will not submit to your attempts at emotional blackmail and guilt trip. It no longer works, we do not feel the way you want us to by using those words. They have lost their power over us.
Well I do care because it’s not on to treat people like sh*t no matter where they come from or why they come here. And if all you can say to that is “f*ck off home”, it makes you no better than a common bully.
Yes we need to look after our own and there are definitely a lot of Irish workers being exploited too, but that’s no excuse for this kind of mean spirited attack. Making sure our employers don’t exploit migrants will do us more good than harm.
@pog Actually looking at the wealth and power distribution on the planet being white (and, even better, being a white male) is a pretty good thing. We are at the top of the food change so to speak…..
@Brian – So when do people qualify as Irish or do we all have to be white Roman Catholics? Are the children of immigrants Irish? Or perhaps only if they’re white? What if I marry someone who was born in another country? Are my children Irish? How about in the US? Should everyone who is not a “Native American” be told to go home? What if the 40 million claming Irish descent did just that? If you are simply racist like “pog mo thoine” (who is hiding their real identity as they are clearly embarrassed people who know them would see the type of person he/she is) then just admit it but don’t pretend there is any logic in thinking that you have to be able to trace your family back a certain number of generations before they qualify to be Irish.
Well Diarmaid, holding open the immigration borders and artificially allowing people in from anywhere, without the native people’s consent, while they also take advantage of a Good Friday legal loophole that was never intended for an immigration intake, with people being pregnant on the way. This all does not make them Irish at all.
In fact coming over and taking advantage of us,….isn’t that what the vikings did, they came over to take advantage. Yet one is called invasion, while the other hs people tripping over themselves to appear as self-righteous multicult “I’m better then you” priests.
So when is your bishophood in the multicult church Diarmaid, feeling smug and superior, you just exchanged the Catholic church for a new multicult one, different religion, same superior status snobbery.
Irish were pagan before Catholism. So don’t know what your reference to RC is all about.
It is true nations are mostly nations because they are composed of a people who share a common ancestral and cultural heritage. So for instance the Irish share familial and blood bonds of common ancestors, next then also with our western european cousins, just a little less so. The American Cherokee Indians were a nation distinct from the Iroquois Indians, because their ancestors were different, yet they were still related distantly through being Orientals having come from the peoples who crossed the Bering strait. Same with the African Masai Mara people, they are all a nation, a related people, who are tied by blood and familial links with an ancestral heritage, they are less related to the Zulu, but more related to them, then we are. And do too again with the Irish, we are somewhat different to the other weestern European nations, but we are still related to them, but not to the African Zulu or Mara nations. When one speaks of a Masai Mara person, one instantly pictures a Masai Mara person, i.e, a tall black African, not a white European, not a Japanese person, not even an African pygmie person. So tell them they are not black or African.
So yes from the explanation above of what a people are and where they come from, it is clear that a people, a nation have common blood bonds, an ancestral heritage that gave rise to their unique and specific cultural heritage. So to be Irish you would for a start have to be of western European origin ancestrally.
Children of Immigrants:
Is a Nigerian born in China, Chinese, does he have yellow skin and Oriental eyes?
Just because you are born in a certain part of the world, does not make you an ethnic native of that part of the world.
Many of these people took advantage of the GFA legal loophole, that was intended for immigrants. So even their civic piece of paper ‘saying’ they are Irish citizens is invalid, nevermind being Irish. We would be quite entitled to revoke such titles, as that GFA legislation was taken advantage of and was never were ok’d by the Irish people. In fact to take advantage of GFA loophole invalidates their whole citizenship from parent to following descendants, as they abused our country’s sovereignty, entering by deception. Thus none of them from parent to following descendants are Irish citizens nevermind Irish nationals.
Firstly the original “native Americans” were the white european solutreans, who were slaughtered and raped by the following waves of Oriental Americans, so if anyone is going home, it is the American Indians back to the Orient.
2ndly, America was seen as the New World, unsettled and unpopulated, they saw it as new territory, what happened to the Oriental Ameicans was wrong and horrific, they should have far more land given back to them, however the U.S political entity was founded, designed built and died for by Europeans and by the Irish, we have every right to go to the U.S, Canada, Oz, NZ, we helped found and build those countries, they are ancestrally tied to us. There is no comparison with that and with Africans and Asians coming to settled nation states, with already established peoples and cultures, what happened to the Oriental Americans was wrong, to have immigration into europe like that, is repeating that wrong.
*Many of these people took advantage of the GFA legal loophole, that was NOT intended for immigrants.
Wtf are you talking about?!
Sorry that was in response to pog mo thoin comment above
@gelaldine..did you not read my comments…?what seems to be your problem
An indeed great solution: people unhappy about being exploited – board a plane, immigrants unhappy about their conditions – board a plane, women with difficult pregnancies – board a plane to the UK, people trying to do good and disagreeing with injustice – board a plane. Then all those who hate everyone and everything will stay here to boil in their hatred.
Ciara
A lot of them actually used the ferry over from the UK and other parts like Sweden. I have noticed some Africans with a bit of a British accent on them too. We are being taken for mugs.
@ciara IL pay for your ticket personally
Its a real shame to hear the same old arguments ‘go back home’ and ‘happy to have food and shelter’, people who think that it is okay to treat people unfairly in all manners of working conditions fail to see the links between ‘those people’ and all sectors of society – retail sector, cleaning sector, restaurant industry, etc. Thinking oh well it doesn’t affect me! Or the poor irish! So are we saying that it is okay to treat one group of workers unfairly than the rest of us??!! What affects one, affects all and will drive down standards for working conditions for everyone! And in regards to the homeless people on the streets, did you know that majority of the volunteers that work with one of the leading homeless charities in Dublin hire from abroad?? Know the facts
no it is not alright to treat people unfairly, no matter who they are.
Point is though, it is reality, it is well known, most of these cases are ridiculous and taking advantage of our good sense of generosity and social welfare culture. It is wrong of them to try to guilt trip us and emotionally blackmail us, when we have done so much for the 3rd world. Nobody asked us about the open border immigration policy we have.
It sickens me to see my own Irish people on the streets, my own Irish elderly living alone and in squalor, Irish people dying alone, frozen to death because they cannot pay the heating bill, like Rachel Peavoy. It really upsets me and angers me, these are Irish people, people born and bred here, who I am related to, people already here and already in need.
I ask that we sort out our own people before we go galavanting off to sort out the rest of the world. Of course to these new self-righteous multicult religious snobs, helping Irish people is not as glamorous or as exotic as saying you are helping a Sudanese etc. The fake concern and helping the exotic foreign option, is a sickening agenda of the new multicult religion.
There’s thousands of Irish people who are also taken advantage of for loads of different reasons…come on, don’t think ‘foreigners’ have a monopoly! I regularly work overtime for nothing and the attitude is shut up and put up, your lucky to have a job…oh and I’m Irish.
Very true, the program should be throwing the spot light on all the crooks who employee and treat badly, name and shame, though if you go on to the Labour Court site you can find all the dodgy employers who have been named in court. been there, got my justice, told the dodgy employer to print a copy off for themselves and frame it!
On another note, one can’t come in here and work illegally and then start complaining they’re been exploited when in fact they’re only contributing to the problem. You’ve no right and you’ve no right to be here taking jobs from those who need them. Non EU Students who are out staying their welcome here on expired visas is massive! It really needs to be tackled.
Non-EU students is going to be a massive problem now that Half-Indian Leo Varadkhar is using his Asian connections to increase that number in the name of “business for Ireland”.
There is another loop-hole here because students can keep renewing their student visas for each new addition onto their study programme, degree to masters, to doctorate etc and then they can get their work visas finding employment, once they have that, they are here permanently.
But not only that, if they marry while here, they get to stay here, if they can show that the main centre of gravity of their life is now ireland after a few years, they can get to stay here.
Meanwhile all the Irish students who relied on the part-time jobs must now compete ever harder for a smaller amount of jobs. Other people who used to work and add to the household intake are now sqeezed out from jobs in their local small supermarkets, or indeed old age pensioners who used to look forward to have a more work filled and meaningful day with jobs like that or petrol station shops. All mostly now taken over by Asian students or foreigners here on other reasons.
What about our Irish people and their needs, in the proclamation is says that the resources of this nation were for the ‘unfettered access of the irish people’, not the people imported in through multicult enforced immigration policies. Right now these policies are in breech of the Irish proclamation and thus constitution.
brian, how much do they pay for their college course, how much for their permits and for their gnib cards?
Laura
Yes Laura, how much, your point being?
Also no amount of money compensates for the amount who then stay here, displacing Irish people out of our own resources and limited places for things this small island offers, not to mention how many scive off illegally and then get to stay permanently. As well as the burden it puts on our infrastructure, water and sewage and waste facilities, schooling, university places and part-time jobs which most Irish people need.
Come off it.
Also Laura it is double standards and hyprocrisy that every time a few million is lavished on Irish politicians or other Irish people and wasted by them, the multicult brainwashed crowd scream and shout about the millions that could have gone on Irish people suffering, yet when we waste the same amount on immigration policy and the asylum process on bogus claims and the amount the whole system costs us, nothing, not a word from ye, are you all petrified of treating other human beings of a different skin colour the same as we would treat our own by giving out to them as much as we would our own, I am not, which is why I treat all people the same. Blame where blame is deserved, and stop the racism of treating other non-whites any differently, it is patronising and racist.
The thinly veiled racism in the comments on this story is very sad. Considering our own history of emigration it is shocking how people can be so hypocritical. Do we really hate people from different countries so much that we think it is wrong that they should have their rights defended? Do we not see that as a country that has sent its people abroad for so long that it would seem right to defend the rights of those who are legally resident here? It wasn’t always rich, educated people we sent away – many thousands of virtual destitute people went to England and America and suffered the discrimination that the people above seem to think is appropriate to apply to others.
Well said Diarmaid, as every tie the journal posts an article about discrimination it seems a nuthouse of ostridges, racists and bullies who all claim they are the victim, rather then the ones truly victimised.
show where the racism is Diarmaid?
Your attempt at emotional blackmail and guilt-tripping has no effect on the proud Irish people anymore. We have a right to be left alone, to be ourselves and to have our own culture, just as any Nigerian or Amazonian Indian has. The fact the Irish people with a unique identity, genetics and culture exist, is enough for us to have the RIGHT to exist.
Denying that is racism against whites, it is anti-white, and anti-Irish. Your hatred and bigotry against a section of the human species is abhorrent to behold. If you deny it to us whites, when will you deny it to other races, like our black and yellow brothers and sisters. If you cannot stand up for any one particular race, then you cannot stand up for any.
No most Irish people opposed to immigration policy do not hate anyone. I do not hate anyone from any different country, many are sound and decent people, just as there are good and decent and bad Irish people, there are also the same with foreigners.
Yes people working deserve fair treatment, no matter who.
In fact if immigrants are paid the same, then in fact Irish some Irish employers who are taking advantage of that, would then hire Irish people, there would also be less immigration into Ireland.
Being opposed to immigration policy is not hatred toward people, it is in fact the opposite, it recognises the long term damage and destruction that multiculturalism and immigration policy does, making people of all nations competitors and slave cattle, forced to move to whatever fenced in job grassland they are shunted to go to by the super rich capitalists and mega banks. Destroying cultures, languages and nationalities wherever it goes.
So opposing this multicult agenda is because we see the long term effects that is has in destroying all human diversity of races and nations. That is love Diarmaid, not hate.
@brian
Jeez Brian, thats a great answer, fair play.
You don’t mind if I add it to my own repertoire of arguments when confronted with the “we are the world” patronising types ?
Redthumbboy
Add away, that is what it is there for, more people the merrier. All to help our people, shake off this tyrannical multicult church brainwashing, to make us free from this emotional blackmailing and guilt-trip oppression.
Where is the solidarity people??? It’s not minority group you should be angry with, it’s the people who have the power to make decisions.. your rights could be next and then what will you have to say? Shameful comments
Blame should be laid where blame is deserved.
Bankers, politicians, some Irish citizens should be blamed, for the decisions they made. However minorities are not blameless. Take Pamela Izevbekhai, she ran us into court over 25 times costing us over 1million euro if not more, there have been other prolonged cases like this.
The govt stated that many asylum cases were fraudulent, these people also deserve blame. Coming to a small country putting a strain on our system and costing us millions. The Irish NGO’s like the migrant rights centre should be blamed, they deliberately try to get people in here whether they are legal or not, I know this for a fact. They have an agenda called no-nations, no-borders. That agenda is dangerous to the native people of this Island. Money spent on the immigration policy and it’s effects, is money lost to the Irish people, causing much suffering and death.
exactly Brian. Course 1 million is nothing, we’ve sent more back to Uganda again to buy fighter jets. pathetic crap
Why didn’t some well paid Quango merchant carry out a study highlighting the poor working conditions of Irish nationals that are struggling to make ends meet?…oh wait because that would be raycess.
In this thread, the usual suspects tilting at windmills decrying and diagnosing “racism” at every turn. Still, keeping the politicians and paymasters squirming uncomfortably for fear of being tarred with the same brush has kept the lights on in many quangos, so it must be a fruitful pursuit…
Given the lessons of history, you have no idea what true racism is. And I hope you never get the chance to find out.
Ciara, i’ve lived abroad in latin countries, you would actually find that the Smile and oh We love you Ireland is a cunning front to get what they want. Try living in their countries, you will also find extreme xenophobia, some of it is even written into their constitutions, yes take note Brazil for ruling your imports inc. immigration with an iron fist. What i find hilarious is they all come to Europe complaining when things don’t go their way, when in fact they come from the most injust corrupt countries themselves. Everyone is out for themselves today, thats just the way it is now, acting the goodie two shoes like our Enda is only making yourselves fools by those who would not treat you the same in their own country. Time now to speak up for ourselves, our children, our future OUR country.
What I do not understand is, how are Brazilians allowed in to Ireland, I thought we were only opening our doors to the EU?
Is this the reason there is no proper immigration policy. Cheap unskilled labour that isn’t paid the min wage.
I see two problems 1) our immigration policy, it needs to be change especially in light of 1/2 million unemployed.
2) mim wage is min wage and should be enforce.
I would also like to see all those here illegally to be deported and if they want to appeal its done from their home country at their expense.
Immigration into ireland should be similar to Australia, Canada or US why should we be accepting anthing less.
Spot on Tom, its a joke thats what. Time will come don’t worry, could be a bit late though but it will come.
I second this fair and just motion.
Censorship is really tough on this article.
-government of the peoples Republic of China
Could you point out some of the hate in the comments Maura?
Simply stating something without backing it up does not mean you are correct. Eh, Maura, the Irish go to the US, UK, Oz, Canada, NZ – countries we helped found, design, build and died fighting for, we have ancestral and cultural ties to these countries, we have every right to go in certain numbers to ancestral countries we helped establish. We are not going to Africa or Asia changing the nature of their populations out of all recognition. Also we have to jump through hoops to get into US or Oz, if you are illegal you get chucked out. So we should at the very minimum have very tough immigration policies.
It is nothing to do with what colour a person is, if the whole world was white, and made up of different cultures, I would still insist on tough immigration policies, for each and every other white culture that wanted to come in to ireland. You either protect your culture and territory or it becomes someone elses, and your own culture dies or becomes extinct.
Before there was any immigration Ireland made earth monuments like Newgrange etc which had astro-geological significance, long before the pyramids, the Irish were looking at the stars, as well as all our gold artifacts, book of kells, missionaries to Europe which re-educated Europe after the fall of Rome, so the Irish were always an exciting rich race, with creativeness and imagination, and that all when we were homogenous culture, you do not even appreciate or know your own culture.
Yet you want a multicult, a patchwork of boring sameness that you will find in every city in every european country, how is that not narrow-minded. Ireland had great diversity, with all the different counties each with its own accent and ways, yet all were Irish.
What speeches are you referring to that Adolf Hitler made talking about white only, mono-cultural society. The only speeches he ever made were of telling the Germans that they were a good people who deserved not to live in filth or squalor, that they deserved to live life to the full in their own native lands, and for Germans to help each other.
Tell me, how is it a crime for Germans to want to live and be left alone in their own native country, yet it is alright if Amazon Indians, or Masai Mara Africans or Nigerians to be allowed live in their mono-cultural countries and territories? Double standards and hypocrisy there from you Maura.
If you cannot stand up for one race, you cannot stand up for any.
The thinly disguised hatred in some of the comments on here is very saddening. Do these people really believe that us Irish have the right to live and work abroad to try and make better lives for ourselves and our families but it’s not acceptable for people from other countries to live and work here? If these people want every non-white, non-Irish person sent back to their own countries will they also accept the thousands upon thousands of Irish being sent back here from all around the globe?
I for one enjoy walking down the street and seeing the different cultures and hearing the different languages. In my opinion this does not detract from our culture, it enriches it and makes it more diverse and considering our own history of emigration we have a lot in common with the people settling here. I certainly do not want Ireland to be the inward looking, narrow minded, mono-cultural, priest fearing country it was years ago.
Adolf Hitler also made hate filled speeches about the”glories” of a white only, mono-cultural society in Germany in te 1930s and look what that led to!
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