Public concern about the number of migrant workers in Ireland highlights the need for measures to combat job displacement and exploitation, Siptu said yesterday.
Reacting to the opinion poll published in The Irish Times, Siptu president Jack O'Connor said it was now "absolutely clear" that the displacement and exploitation issues would have to be addressed in any new national pay talks.
Siptu is to decide at a special delegate conference next week whether to support trade-union participation in talks on a successor to Sustaining Progress.
If it decides to enter talks, negotiations on a new agreement could formally begin before the end of next week.
Mr O'Connor said even if they wanted to, the social partners could not emerge from the talks without an acceptable proposal that comprehensively addressed displacement and exploitation.
Siptu general secretary Joe O'Flynn said the union had recruited 15,000 foreign nationals into its membership over the past 18 months, many of whom were employed in construction and services.
The concerns expressed in yesterday's poll confirmed the experiences of many workers with whom Siptu had been in contact, as well as the work of the union's research department.
The research showed that not alone were wage rates not keeping pace with increases due under Sustaining Progress, but they were actually falling in some sectors, he said.
"These trends highlight the necessity for measures to combat job displacement and exploitation. That is why Siptu placed such an emphasis on such measures as a precondition to talks on a new national agreement," Mr O'Flynn said.
"If we are to enter new national pay talks, and that has still to be decided, these issues must be addressed effectively."
Migrant Rights Centre Ireland director Siobhán O'Donoghue also expressed concern about the displacement of jobs, but she expressed doubt about "the levels and extent of this phenomenon".
Introducing work permits for citizens of the 10 states that joined the EU in 2004 would not address the issue of displacement, she said.
"It would, however, put workers undertaking valuable work at greater risk of exploitation. It is the experience of the [centre] that the work-permit system as it currently operates effectively bonds people to jobs. If a person is being exploited they find it extremely difficult to leave that job. It also increases the likelihood of a worker becoming undocumented through permits not being renewed or applied for in the first place," Ms O'Donoghue said.
