Initiatives to resolve outstanding issues with GAMA

national | worker & community struggles and protests | press release Monday May 09, 2005 17:31 by Turkish Workers’ Action Group

Joe Higgins T.D. calls on Commission for Energy Regulation to cancel electricity generation licence to Tynagh Energy unless GAMA agrees to resolve outstanding pay issues immediately

Calls for urgent meeting with Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Michéal Martin.

Socialist Party T.D. Joe Higgins today wrote to the Commission for Energy Regulation (C.E.R.) demanding that the licence it has granted to Tynagh Energy be revoked in view of GAMA’s failure to make a reasonable offer to its workers regarding outstanding pay issues. Tynagh Energy is owned by GAMA.

Deputy Higgins said in his letter to the C.E.R., “Three hundred GAMA workers are currently entering their fifth week on work stoppage in pursuit of justice from their employer. Many work currently, or worked previously, at the Tynagh site.

“As is now common knowledge, GAMA forced its employees to work over 80 hours per week and at incredibly low wages, dormitory accommodation, food and €2.20 per hour. So far the workers have recovered a portion of their wages hidden in Finansbank Holland. But this only accounts for a 48-hour week at trade union rates of pay. There is outstanding the massive overtime that GAMA is adamantly refusing to pay (and attempting to deny against all the evidence).

“There is also a category of worker known as ‘staff’ or ‘fixed rate worker’ who were on a fixed salary of around €800 per month. They include surveyors and drivers. Although they worked the same hours as the other workers, GAMA put no funds in their names in Amsterdam because they were not covered by the Registered Agreements in the construction industry. Consequently they were at a severe disadvantage when the accounts in Holland were uncovered.

“Following pressure, GAMA paid on Friday last, May 6th, a sum of money into their accounts. But this was only a fraction (between a quarter and a third) of what the workers covered by the REA received.

“Consequently the two outstanding issues are overtime payments for all affected workers and the particular case of the fixed rate workers. Apart from the moral issues involved here with breach of workers’ rights and gross exploitation of labour, there are also serious commercial questions that arise. If allowed to benefit from such intense exploitation, Tynagh Energy would have a massive unfair competitive edge over other generators and suppliers of electricity in the Irish market.”

Meeting with Minister Martin requested
The GAMA workers’ committee is seeking a new meeting with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Michéal Martin. They believe the Minister and his Department could take important initiatives to resolve the outstanding issues with GAMA.