Welfare Decision On Lucan Site Raises  Issues Says Crowe

Dublin South West representative Seán Crowe TD has claimed that a
landmark decision by the Department of Social Protection that JJ
Rattigan workers involved in the construction of a Department of
Education school in the Kishoge site in Lucan are employees rather
than self-employed is a welcome development  but raises other serious
questions regarding state policy in this area of employment.

Deputy Seán Crowe said

“For a long time the small  amount of available  jobs for workers in
the construction sector was in the building of schools and campuses
authorised by the Department of Education.

“Building workers continually claim that the vast majority of these
jobs were filled by the ‘black economy’ or by workers having to take
the self-employed, sub-contractor route.

“Currently it is estimated that there are 365,000 RTCs (Relevent
Contract Tax)  or Subcontractor certificates in the state and it is
reasonable to assume that many of them, if not the majority of them are
produced for bogus reasons.

“You have the crazy situation that now exists where the bulk of the
work is being stimulated by state contracts and for some bizarre
reasons various state entitiesare turning a blind eye to contractors
subletting work out to contractors who ignore and break employment
laws ‘willy nilly’.

“Workers who should be employed directly in the traditional way are
being forced into subcontracting by employers, to allow contractors
shirk their responsibilities such as the minimum wage, employer PRSI,
illness benefit and jobseekers benefit.

“On the Kishoge Building site in Lucan it is reported that workers
were being paid a miserly €5 an hour.

“RCTs are being so flagrantly abused that some recruitment agencies
actually advertise that normal workers entitlements do not apply.

“Some within the Department of Social Protection even go as far to
admit that they cannot police the current system which encourages
fraud, tax defaulting, and rogue employers. The Department of
Education seem happy to get the schools and campuses built and
delivered regardless of the social cost.

“The chaos in which the Irish construction industry is in with regards
to widespread bogus self-employment has serious consequences for
workers and legitimate employers who are being priced out of
contracts.

“Workers are left high and dry with regards to basic workers’ rights,
the state is also cheated out of considerable amounts of tax and PRSI
and decent employers who employ directly have a huge competitive
disadvantage over  these cowboy and ‘fly by night’ builders.

“The government and its various Departments are complicit in allowing
these illegal activities expand and multiply across the construction
sector.

“The tax authorities and Department of Social and Family Affairs seem
slow to respond to workers and their representatives that claim there
is widespread abuse occurring in the sector.

“The Department of Education would appear to be content to ignore what
is happening on educational sites appearing powerless to prevent and
stop the practice of forced and bogus sub-contracting.

“The government need to introduce urgent regulation to ensure that
direct employment is the default position not the norm for workers in
the construction industry. There also needs to be greater penalties
put into place where a person is falsely reported as self-employed and
the practice of state tenders need to put under greater controls and
prohibit abuse of bogus self-employment practices”