23 August 2001 Edition
Tallaght builders oppose black market
BY MICHAEL PIERSE
Building workers in Tallaght, Dublin, marched on Wednesday morning, 22 August, in protest against what they term `exessive levels of sub-contracting and black-market employement' on a site in the area.
Approximately 600 workers joined the march, from The Square, Tallaght, to the Shamrock Rovers FC site where they work. The march was organised by Building Workers Against the Black Economy. The group oppose black-economy work on the basis that it endangers the health and safety rights of employees, and allows employers to pay them less wages.
Denis Farrelly, the Dublin organiser of the Builders and Allied Trades Union (BATU), said that as the building on the site is being sponsored by government funds, it was a ``disgrace'' that they were being used ``to fuel the black economy''.
Sinn Féin's Dublin South West representative, Councillor Seán Crowe, welcomed the news later on Wednesday evening that Shamrock Rovers and the building contractors in question, O'Loughlin's of Longford, have agreed to meet with the Tallaght workers.
``I welcome this decision and hope it will result in a speedy resoultion to the problem,'' he said. ``At the height of a building boom, it is inconceivable that proper conditions as regards wages, health and safety of workers are in jeopardy on some sites.''
Building workers in Tallaght, Dublin, marched on Wednesday morning, 22 August, in protest against what they term `exessive levels of sub-contracting and black-market employement' on a site in the area.
Approximately 600 workers joined the march, from The Square, Tallaght, to the Shamrock Rovers FC site where they work. The march was organised by Building Workers Against the Black Economy. The group oppose black-economy work on the basis that it endangers the health and safety rights of employees, and allows employers to pay them less wages.
Denis Farrelly, the Dublin organiser of the Builders and Allied Trades Union (BATU), said that as the building on the site is being sponsored by government funds, it was a ``disgrace'' that they were being used ``to fuel the black economy''.
Sinn Féin's Dublin South West representative, Councillor Seán Crowe, welcomed the news later on Wednesday evening that Shamrock Rovers and the building contractors in question, O'Loughlin's of Longford, have agreed to meet with the Tallaght workers.
``I welcome this decision and hope it will result in a speedy resoultion to the problem,'' he said. ``At the height of a building boom, it is inconceivable that proper conditions as regards wages, health and safety of workers are in jeopardy on some sites.''