This article is from page 5 of the 2006-04-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 5 JPG
THE MONEYPOINT power plant is at the centre of another industrial row today after a subcontractor at the plant tried to send five Polish workers home.
One of the men – a TEEU shop steward – was the “whistle blower” who revealed recently that Polish workers were being paid just €5.20 and hour to work on the €350 million refurbishment programme at the power station.
The men were working for ZRE Katowice, one of the main subcontractors on the Moneypoint site.
They were entitled under the Registered Employment Agreement to be paid €18.97, plus premium rates for overtime.
The company told the men that their contracts of employment were not being renewed.
When the union became aware that the 26-year old shop steward and his four colleagues were to be flown home from Shannon at 5pm yesterday, it intervened.
TEEU Regional Secretary, Pat Guilfoyle said that after successfully intercepting the workers, the union secured a commitment from Lurgi-Lentjes, the main contractor on site, that it would instruct ZRE that the rights of the men to remain in Ireland must be respected. The ZRE workers are to meet today to hold a strike ballot on the company’s actions. The TEEU secretary said that as far as the union was concerned, “this is a straight forward case of victimisation of trade union activists.”
There is also strong support among workers in the power station for the five and TEEU shop stewards are meeting tomorrow to assess the situation. The union has asked for a meeting with ZRE, but the company said the earliest it could meet would be Wednesday.
The ESB said it was dealing with the situation as a matter of urgency.