State 'in breach of the law' on forced labour

Muhammad Younis, originally from Pakistan, has been awarded €86,000 by a Rights Commissioner, following an official complaint about alleged breaches of employment rights. However Mr Younis’s ex-employer, Amjad Hussein - trading as Poppadom - has not yet paid the award. The Labour Court yesterday ordered Hussein to pay the compensation. 

According to Gráinne O’Toole of the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland (MRCI), who supported him in making a complaint, “The gross exploitation and chronic conditions that Muhammad suffered constitute forced labour. In Ireland, there is no legal punishment for forced labour, therefore, the only remedy open to Muhammad Younis was to pursue breaches of employment law.  Ireland is currently in breach of its international legal obligations as a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Article 4 of the ECHR provides protection against slavery and forced labour. The State is under obligation to ensure there are laws protecting people from slavery, servitude and forced labour and is in breach of the law by not bringing this in to force.

We are baffled as to why the government have failed to meet their international obligations on this issue.”

Muhammad Younis worked for Amjad Hussein for seven years from 2002-2009. He was paid well below minimum wage and worked extremely long hours (77 hours per week) with no day off. He was forced to work without a contract of employment, and with no tax or social insurance contributions being made. He was also subjected to threats. His employer also failed to renew Younis’s work permit, thus rendering him undocumented in the State. He was forced to share a house with nine other workers in very poor conditions. He had to endure these degrading conditions for many years.

Welcoming the Labour Court decision, Younis said, “The exploitation I suffered put me in a deep, dark well. I felt I had no hope for my future and no way out. I have been living in a hostel for two years now waiting for my case to be sorted out. I am away from my family, jobless and I am owed a lot of money for my work. I am suffering because of the bad treatment I was subjected to. All I want now is justice. I am thankful that the Labour Court made this decision today. I hope we can highlight this problem so that the government will act.  A law against forced labour would make sure that other workers do not have to suffer in the way I did.”

The restaurant industry is one of the sectors where non-compliance and exploitation are ongoing issues and where forced labour is a serious problem. While yesterday's Labour Court decision was welcomed by the MRCI, Gráinne O’Toole points out that “The most we can do in these cases is to assist people in getting back wages. The government needs to introduce a law to criminalise forced labour, protect victims and give greater powers to the labour inspectors and the Gardaí to tackle this serious problem. This would ensure greater compliance in sectors where forced labour is a real issue.”

This is not the first time the MRCI has taken a case of this nature. One of the most notable and widely reported was that of Surinder Singh, who was forced to endure slave-like conditions working in the family home of his Irish employer and who was awarded more than €200,000 through the Labour Court.

The most common examples of exploitation in these kinds of cases are non-payment of wages for very long hours worked; restriction of workers’ movements; the withholding of identity documentation, and threats of denunciation to the authorities.

The MRCI has dealt with “at least 150 cases” involving forced labour over the past six years, but, according to O’Toole, “We are only dealing with the tip of the iceberg. These cases go undetected and unidentified. This is because we have no law in place to deal with this crime and no protections for people who are subjected to forced labour.

Where we do manage to connect with victims of forced labour we can only assist them in a limited way through hostel accommodation and assistance to take a case to the employment tribunals for back wages. The perpetrators go unpunished and suffer no penalties for committing this heinous crime.”