PROTEST AT 200 FEET: Would You Work For €5 An Hour? These Dublin Workers Claim They Work For Less

Workers are staging a sit-in protest 200 feet above the ground in a crane in Dublin at the moment. The bricklayers at a school building project in the city are occupying the crane due to what they say has been underpayment for their work. They have enough food to stay up there for eight days and the workers, who belong to UNITE trade union, said that due to the subcontracting system on the Lucan site, they had been earning less than €5 an hour. “We’re not coming down until we’re paid,” said Gary Gleeson to RTE, adding that he and his colleagues had bank statements to prove they hadn’t been getting paid properly. The men are at the top of the crane in protest.  “We don’t want to be up here, but we’ve been made to do it. We had to do it. The only thing we want is our jobs back, our rates..this is my first job for the past two years – I couldn’t get work. “We’ll stay up here until we have to go on hunger strike.” Meanwhile the developer at the centre of the allegations has stated that the claims are untrue. “The 70 workers are all paid the going rate which is in full compliance with legislation,” said a statement from the firm. Other workers have been paid only once, while more are saying that they haven’t been paid at all. Workers are ready to go on hunger strike until they get paid.