The High Court has ruled 20 Portuguese workers are entitled to damages and interest, expected to exceed €1 million, after finding they were treated “appallingly” by their former employers when they were building a section of the N7 motorway in 2007 and 2008.

Ms Justice Carmel Stewart, noting the workers had been working here for periods up to two years, said: “It beggars belief that their ordeal could have lasted for so long.” The 20 workers claimed they were underpaid while working for three Portuguese companies, called the RAC Eire Partnership, contracted to construct the section of motorway between Limerick and Nenagh.

Contract

A number of related cases have been taken by others who worked on the road project. The judge found the workers, represented by David McGrath SC, instructed by solicitor Tom O’Regan, are entitled to damages for breach of contract.

They had also claimed deductions were taken by the employer from their wages for accommodation and laundry were not reasonable or fair and their accommodation was not of a reasonable standard. They further alleged their employers maintained fraudulent records of the hours they worked. The award was made against Portuguese-based Rosas Construtores SA, Constructocoes Gabriel AS Couto SA, and Empresa Deconstrucoes Amandio Carvalho SA, all trading under the title RAC Contractors or RAC Eire Partnership.

The defendant partnership was not represented in court, and the claims were uncontested. In her decision, the judge said the workers who gave evidence before the court were “decent hardworking individuals” who were “entirely blameless” in the events that unfolded since the contract was awarded to build the road in 2006.

They had come to Ireland to support themselves and their families but were “treated appallingly” by their employers. She praised the work of the State authorities in seeking to “regularise the defendants’ enterprise”, adding “the defendants had fought them every step of the way”.

The plaintiffs’ working conditions were brought to light following investigations conducted by the National Employment Rights Authority, she said. Their employers were found in breach of numerous employment regulations including the Organisation of Working Time Act and the workers worked far in excess of what the defendants’ worksheets had indicated.

Ms Justice Stewart said evidence was given the Portuguese workers lived in a cramped prefab building where there were between six to eight people per room. The facility, which had been located at a rural townland outside Nenagh, Co Tipperary, was also a fire hazard, she said.

Facilities

The judge said there was no drinkable water at the accommodation, the showers didn’t work all the time and there was a smell from where wastewater from the facility flowed. “The washing facilities provided by the defendants were unfit for any living thing, least of all human beings,” she said, adding the conditions resulted in the workers’ health being affected.

She also accepted the defendants had made “extortionate deductions from the workers’ wages.” Those deductions supposedly went towards items including their food that was insufficient to properly feed the workers and accommodation that was not fit for purpose, she said.

In all the circumstances, she ruled the workers in these cases were entitled to damages of €818,000 between them. The judge will make a final award when interest is added to that figure. It is expected the final award will exceed €1 million. The matter will be mentioned before the court in the new year.