The document discusses the plight of migrant workers from Eastern Europe who came to Ireland during the economic boom but are now homeless due to losing their jobs in the recession. It details the stories of individuals like Patrick, a Polish immigrant, who worked legally in Ireland for years but is now homeless after employers failed to pay him wages owed or deduct proper taxes. Charities are providing shelter to these homeless migrants, though the state prefers they not assist and some have faced pressure to deny services. As jobs have dried up, many migrants who contributed to Ireland through years of work are now destitute, exploited, and denied social welfare due to loopholes, despite having paid taxes when employed.

1. TERAPROOF:User:johntynanDate:25/03/2012Time:22:22:25Edition:26/03/2012ExaminerLiveXX2603Page: 13Zone:XX1
13ANALYSISIrish Examiner
Monday 26.03.2012
XX1 - V1
Sparks fly
as unions
negotiate
pay rates
A three-year fight
over salaries
by electricians is
near breaking point, says
Stephen Rogers
Alittle under three years ago, a
large chunk of the country’s
10,000 electricians staged a
strike demanding an 11.6% increase in
the legally binding pay rate, from
€21.49 per hour to €23.98.
Such a demand, at a time when a
recession seemed almost inevitable, was
viewed in many quarters as ambitious, if
not downright greedy. After all, the
construction industry was on its knees
and contracts for which electricians and
their employers could compete were
becoming fewer by the day.
After four days of strike action,
protracted negotiations yielded a
recommendation for an almost 5% rise,
but that was eventually rejected by the
biggest group of employers.
Three years on, relations appear to be
at breaking point once more. However,
now the battle-lines are drawn not just
between electrical unions and
employers, but also between employer
representatives.
The hourly rate remains set by law at
€21.49, but industry sources say few
members of the public pay that much —
it is claimed electricians are charging
customers as little as €14 per hour.
Non-compliant electrical contractors
allegedly hire out their staff for similarly
low rates in order to be competitive.
With the industry in flux, employers
seemed to be singing from the same
song-sheet. Both the Association of
Electrical Contractors in Ireland, which
represents smaller electrical contractors,
and the Electrical Contractors’
Association, which represents the bigger
engineering firms, agreed at the end of
last year to issue a joint request to the
Labour Court to have the Registered
Employment Agreement, which sets the
legally binding pay rates, set aside. If
that had gone to plan, the existing
agreement would end in June.
However now, to the fury of its fellow
employer group, the ECA appears on
the verge of signing a deal with the
Technical Engineering and Electrical
Union, the main union representing
electricians, that would see the rate cut
by just 5%-10%, keeping the hourly
wage around the €20 mark.
According to the AECI, the joint
motion by the ECA and TEEU was
tabled at a recent meeting of the
Electrical National Joint Industrial
Council. The AECI representative was
asked to sign it at that meeting but
refused. Afterwards, AECI president
Brian Flanagan wrote to the ECA.
“Not only was it naive of the ECA to
think the AECI would sign this
document in which they had no hand,
act or part,” he said, “but it was grossly
insulting to our organisation that you
would go behind our backs and hold
talks with the union, given that, on Dec
1, 2011, you signed a joint letter with
the AECI asking the Labour Court to
cancel the REA agreement.”
He said the AECI would now find it
difficult to negotiate with the ECA on
the REA.
According to Industrial Relations
News, for the TEEU and ECA deal to
be given legal effect, they must apply to
the Labour Court to vary the existing
REA or register a new REA. IRN says
it may be possible for the ECA to keep
its joint application with the AECI to
cancel the agreement, but alongside a
joint application with the TEEU to vary
or register a new agreement, such a
stance would be difficult to maintain.
The AECI say even a 10% cut in the
REA rate is pointless. It says electricians
themselves want a greater reduction in
the minimum rate because they know
that if they are compliant with the legal
minimums, there will be numerous
competitors willing to do the same job
for much less money.
As well as non-compliant operators,
the electricians also have to compete
with their counterparts in the North,
who are paid the equivalent of €16 per
hour.
AECI also points out that it is easier
for the ECA to agree to lower the rate
by only 10% as, in many cases, the
employers it represents sub-contract out
the work to smaller contractors who
may not be charging the REA rates.
However, there is a clause in the
proposed agreement between the ECA
and TEEU which states: “The main
electrical contracting company, when
sub-contracting work or hiring
electricians and apprentices from any
source, shall ensure that the rates of pay
and conditions of employment are in
compliance with the law and apply to all
electricians and apprentices engaged in
the works and/or services.”
AECI wants a reduction in the rate of
a minimum of 20%. That would lower
the hourly minimum to around €17. It
admits that would still be above the
rates charged by many electricians but it
says stricter monitoring of the industry
would ensure greater compliance.
On May 1, 2004, Ireland
opened its arms — and
border — to floods of
workers from the European Union
accession states following the fifth
enlargement of the EU.
They were economic migrants
from countries such as Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, the
Czech Republic, and they became
our bricklayers, carpenters,
cleaners, pub workers and waiters.
Now, those very same people
make up a significant cohort of
our homeless population: destitute,
with their dreams of a new life in
Ireland in tatters.
In prosperous times, no-one
considered the consequences of
signing these people up for the
long term. And while some EU
member states placed temporary
restrictions on the rights of eastern
European workers, Ireland did not.
In the midst of a building boom,
there were jobs for everybody in
Ireland Inc, and the Poles in
particular came in their droves.
Now, with the Celtic Tiger’s
roar long silenced, and a 14% un-
employment rate, many are surplus
to requirements. The state, by
enforcing draconian welfare rules,
and paying for flights home for
those who have fallen on hard
times has made its position clear:
You can now go home, thank you
very much.
Though no national figures are
available showing the number of
destitute migrants, it is safe to say
the figure runs into the hundreds.
All came here to work, most to
save money for a better life, or to
send it home. Many who believed
they were paying taxes, and so
would have some form of social
protection, later found out em-
ployers were not paying their
PRSI. And even for those who
were, there is no guarantee of
getting any form of benefit due to
a clause called the habitual resi-
dence condition (HRC), designed
to deny welfare payments to
people who are not Irish.
Southern president of the
St Vincent de Paul, Brendan
Dempsey, maintains there is
pressure not to feed or shelter
Eastern Europeans.
“We are housing destitute
migrants, though I think the state
would prefer if we did not,” he
says. “The state advertised for
them to come here in the good
times, they worked and paid taxes
and now they are not entitled to
anything.
“We have about 33 or 34 of
them here in Cork City. It has
been said to me by state employ-
ees: Do not feed or house them,
then they will go home.”
On a European level, there has
long been concern that workers
from less well-off EU countries
moving to wealthier ones would
be victims of “social dumping”,
whereby migrant workers would
not receive the same conditions,
including pay, as national workers.
This has come to pass in Ireland,
and Brendan and others who work
with migrants tell stories of
exploitation and unfair treatment.
Some employers do not want to
pay migrants the minimum wage
and, if challenged, tell workers to
take it or leave it.
Even during the good times,
many were not paid properly for
work, and now, some are being
not paid at all, driving
them into debt.
“Patrick”, 56, came
to Ireland in the very
month that Ireland
opened its borders.
“The Polish govern-
ment was flying home
from Ireland, I was
flying in,” he says. “I
worked for eight
months straight —
with just three days off
— on Cork Airport. I
was paying taxes and
working legally, just
like anyone else.”
Speaking through an
interpreter, he explains
that he first began
working in construc-
tion and “hoped” his
employer was paying
PRSI on his behalf,
but his English was
bad, so he did not
know. He worked in Mallow for
six months, then at Fota House.
As the building boom came to an
end, he began working for
small-scale builders, but whenever
he asked about documentation he
would get sacked.
Patrick registered himself as
self-employed and, for two years,
he has been trying to work for
himself. He maintains he is owed
more than €1,500 from one job,
as well as other smaller amounts.
“I have no record and so have no
chance to get it back. My English
is not good and people take ad-
vantage of that.”
Stoic, humble, and grateful for
the help he has received, Patrick is
finding it tough being homeless.
A talented carpenter and crafts-
man, all he wants is to work, and
is studying to improve his English.
“I invested all my money into
my tools to get better, but without
work and not getting paid for
work, it became very difficult.”
He says he feels “very upset”
that he has become homeless.
“I am a new homeless person,
so it is very hard to deal with. I
have always worked and never had
to rely on charity.”
He has been living in a Simon
shelter in Cork for about a month.
“People at the hostel have a lot
of problems,” he says. “I am
shocked by the drinking and the
problems, but they do want to
change, it’s just so difficult to get
out.”
Brendan Dempsey sees men like
Patrick every day, though often
they do not have the drive he does
to change his life. In the SVP’s
hostel, they gather by night, after
spending the day out and about,
some looking for work, others just
hanging around.
They all worked in the good
times, and do not want to go
home now, as is their right, and
the SVP is refusing to put people
out on the street despite signals
that they should not assist them.
Some men, however, have taken
to drinking heavily and are caught
in a cycle of poverty and apathy.
“They tend to cling together
because they can’t speak English.
And they are living alongside the
high-support people we deal with,
who don’t know how to interact
with them so that increases their
isolation.”
One man in the
hostel had been
living in a tent under a
flyover on the outskirts of Cork
City.
Although he was working, he
could not afford to rent some-
where to live. The SVP took him
in and he is living there now until
he gets back on his feet. There is
another Polish man who has been
sleeping in a church doorway in
Cork for weeks but does not seem
to want any help.
“We offered him a bed in the
hostel but he doesn’t want to
come in,” says Brendan. “For
some reason, he has a fear of it
and won’t engage with us. But the
priests over there are minding him
and feeding him. Again, he had
years of work in this country is
not entitled to anything now.”
Similarly, in Waterford, hostel
manager Terence O’Neill says
these people have been dumped
out on the streets and left for
charities such as the SVP to pick
them up.
“We have a lot of Russians, Ro-
manians here, it’s a real mixture,
we had an Italian man recently
too,” he says. “It really is terrible
what is going on.
“There are language barriers and
people don’t understand their
rights, and this welfare clause, the
HRC, is causing people to be
homeless. It is a huge drain on us.
We had a woman from Latvia who
was working away, but cleaning
chemicals she worked were getting
to her so she had to take time off.
“She was not entitled to get any
welfare payment, even though she
has been living and working here
and paying taxes, and she ended
up getting evicted from her flat
with her young child.”
The woman’s doctor eventually
wrote a letter on her behalf and
she managed to get an emergency
payment. “Unfortunately people
have little or no tolerance for these
people,” says Terence. “We are
subsidising the Government, peo-
ple are being denied payments and
we are picking up the slack.”
According to Terence, migrants
often report being treated very
badly by welfare officers. “It
depends on who you get in
Community Welfare Office, but
one man told me he was not
going back, he had been treated
like a dog and was embarrassed —
this was an educated man looking
for work. People are treated like
they are nothing. This is an attack
on people, and we are left to pick
up the pieces.”
Homeless services for
migrant workers are
dependent on their
immigration status, and national
policy appears to ambiguous and
ad-hoc outside of the capital. And
while there are options for home-
less migrants in Dublin, they are
limited, and there is a clear is a
practice of separation from Irish
homeless.
In Dublin, migrants are housed
together, and there is also a “new
communities unit” run by the de-
partment of Social Protection, for
non-Irish and non-EU nationals,
to assess eligibility for mainstream
social welfare payments.
A spokesperson for the Dublin
Region Homeless Executive said
people who do not satisfy the
HRC rule can still access
emergency accommodation.
But while the powers that be
maintain there is no overt policy
to systematically move migrants
out of Ireland, plans are afoot to
try and relocate them home.
Jointly funded by Dublin City
Council and the Mendicity
Institute, about 20 Polish and
Lithuanians in Dublin have been
“earmarked” for a “reconnection
initiative”.
Based on a successful model in
Britain, the Barka project has seen
1,000 Eastern European migrants
living on the streets of London
return home.
In Dublin, the programme will
run for six months with a view to
broadening out if it is successful.
Charles Richards of the Men-
dicity Institute maintains at least
70 Eastern Europeans are utterly
destitute on the streets of Dublin.
He said several of them have
died in the past few years: one was
knocked down by a bus while
drunk, another died of liver
damage. “They drink cheap Polish
vodka, which is like window
cleaner,” he said. “When they
initially come to us they are posi-
tive and are applying for jobs but
gradually they become more and
more passive, lose their health,
their teeth start to rot and they are
sucked into the street life.”
In Cork, Voyteck Bialek, the
chairman of a voluntary Polish
support and integration centre,
Together-Razem, hopes to get
funding for a similar initiative.
But, he says, people cannot be
forced to leave Ireland it they do
not want to. “The person has to
want to go home,” he says. “I
know of a lot of people who have
moved back, but some can’t be-
cause there is nothing for them.
“If there are opportunities for
some to go home, it should be
done in a professional way,
through reconnection pro-
grammes. It is a long process. You
need to find out if there are family
members, jobs, a future. You can’t
just send them back to end up
back on the streets over there.”
Voyteck says a lot of homeless
organisations in Poland are run by
church bodies and many do not
want to go to those places. “There
is a pride issue also. I know two
cases where the person rings home
and says they are still working and
doing well but, in reality, they are
homeless. Reconnecting people
would have to be done in a very
sensitive manner and it is a long
process. People have to be asked,
and they have to be willing to go.”
NO WORK, NO
HOME, NO HOPE
Above: A homeless migrant seeks shelter in the doorway of a Dublin Church; below: Polish immigrant ‘Patrick’,
left, with Together-Razem chairman Voyteck Bialek, centre, and St Vincent de Paul southern president Brendan
Dempsey, right, at the Together-Razem support and integration centre. Mr Dempsey said state employees have
told him: Do not feed or house immigrants, then they will go home. Pictures: Billy Higgins and Denis Scannell
The labour of Eastern European workers helped fuel the Celtic Tiger. Now
they have been thrown on the scrapheap, writes Jennifer Hough
HRC explained
The habitual residence
condition was written into law
in 2004 to safeguard the social
welfare system from abuse by
people who have little or no
established connection with
Ireland.
At the time, Ireland was
being flooded with EU workers,
and it was primarily to prevent
foreign nationals claiming
benefits they might send to
another country, or were plan-
ning to return to soon after.
Under the rule, social welfare
officers should take an holistic
approach and look at each
case individually and under
five factors.
They are: The length and
continuity of residence; length
and purpose of any absence
from the State; the nature and
pattern of the person’s
employment; future intentions;
and centre of interest (eg,
family, home, connections).
According to the legislation,
no single factor is conclusive.