A reflection for Workers' Memorial Day

Workers should be allowed the freedom to change employer. By Siobhan O'Donoghue.

A feature of the economic growth model pursued by Ireland has been an attachment to and an overvaluing of risk taking. Taking risks has been seen as fundamental to progress at an individual and societal level. This greed-driven madness has led us to the brink of disaster.

In the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), we come into direct contact with the consequences of this reality all of the time and pages could be filled with various examples where migrant workers have had their rights violated, their safety compromised, their health damaged and sometimes lives lost.

One young man comes to mind. He broke his back while working on a building site, was driven in the back of a van and dumped at the door of the local casualty department.

I am also reminded of a man who ended up on a life support machine as a result of working on a roof despite stormy conditions. His wife was not even allowed leave work to visit him while he lay critically ill in hospital. Incidentally the employer promised to renew both his and his wife’s work permit but never did.

The concept of the ‘flexible labour market’ has grown in popularity over the past decade or so. I never could quite understand what it meant.

I initially understood that it had something to do with adaptability and maximising responsiveness to the needs of the market.  What I have come to realise is that it has more to do with forcing workers to increase their productivity while limiting both their social and economic rights.  

The employment permit system is highly effective in separating out a workers labour and production capacity from his/her personhood.  People employed on work permits are too often viewed as units of labour, not as individuals, members of a family, or community members.

They become dehumanised which makes it much easier to exploit, to degrade and ultimately dispose of, when they are no longer of any use to the employer.

This is hard language to use but in my experience realistic.  This is one of the main reasons why we are calling on the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation to allow workers on permits the freedom to change employer.  Binding a worker to an employer and making it difficult to leave is a recipe for exploitation.

For most of us, we take a lot for granted when we get up and go to work.  We do not expect that work will make us sick, that we will be forced to work in conditions that are unsafe.

I recall sitting with a group of women who told me one after the other about the health problems they experienced having being exposed to dangerous chemicals while working on a mushroom farm. It was absolutely shocking.  Their periods had stopped.  There were reports of miscarriages. Many had skin rashes or hair loss.  Over the years I have heard this same pattern of symptoms and illness from women working on mushroom farms all over the country.

Little notice has been taken by those who have the power to act.

Workers' Memorial Day provides us with a useful reminder that unequal societies are more dangerous and unhealthy for everyone.  Mental and physical health suffers and this is particularly evident in the workplace. Pressure to perform, pressure to produce more at a quicker rate, the daily struggle for survival takes its toil in many ways.

To end I want to honour and remember Kubbath Miah. Kubbath, originally from Bangladesh, lived and worked in Ireland as a chef for ten years. He left his home in the hope of making a better life for his family. Over a period of 5 years he experienced severe exploitation and became undocumented.  At the same time he had to work in order to support his wife and three children back home. Kubbath suffered from bad health. As a direct result of the stress and daily grind of trying to survive he became seriously ill and died in 2008 in the most unacceptable and awful circumstances. He was neglected, disregarded and died alone without his family and without his dignity.

This is why MRCI will continue to fight for justice and rights for all migrant workers and for a society where everyone achieves full equality.

Siobhan O'Donoghue is the director of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland.