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MEP demands local authority probes M7 pay and conditions
LABOUR MEP Alan Kelly has called for a full investigation into the working conditions of workers on the M7 Limerick to Nenagh road, and says he will take their case to the EU if he has to.
Mr Kelly says he received complaints from former skilled workers who were paid the hourly rate of a general operative in breach of The Wages Act 1991. The Limerick Leader understands the amount could run in to high six or even seven figures.
The M7 was due to be finished in May 2009, then it was put back to December and now it has a planned completion date of this April or May.
Bothar Hibernian, which secured the contract, is a consortium comprising Mota-Engil (Portugal), Michael McNamara Company and Coffey Construction Ltd.
Mr Kelly said the complaints relate, not only to rates of pay, but to a number of issues which include payment of a flat rate for overtime hours worked and incomplete contracts of employment.
"These are in breach of Labour laws and practices," said Mr Kelly.
"I have spoken with many of the workers concerned and they have been in contact with my office over the last few months. There are hundreds of workers affected. They way they have been treated is totally unacceptable.
"I have raised this issue with Limerick County Council, who are charged through the NRA with responsibility for this part of the new road. It is up to them to ensure that its contractors are compliant with employment legislation and workers rights are being honoured," he said.
Mr Kelly said he been informed by Limerick County Council that they were to investigate the matter fully and "I will be holding them to this".
"If this is not dealt with satisfactorily and the workers don't get every single penny they are entitled to, I will be supporting SIPTU's case against their employers and Limerick County Council and the NRA. I will take this case all the way to the EU if I have to," said Mr Kelly.
A spokesman for Limerick County Council confirmed that they had representations from Alan Kelly on a number of issues.
"We can also confirm that we are having these matters looked into," said the spokesman.
A number of the former employees are represented by SIPTU, but others are non-union workers. However, it is believed the collective group intends to take action to ensure their legal entitlements are met in full.
The route comprises 28km of dual carriageway built to motorway standard, with a single carriageway link to the main road at Birdhill and the upgrading of 10km the Nenagh bypass to dual carriageway standard. The €425m road will link Limerick Southern Ring Road with the existing Nenagh bypass.
This week, the National Roads Authority announced in its 2010 National Roads Allocations that the M7 scheme was to receive j30.8m. This is just under three quarters of Limerick County Council’s total allocation of j43.6968m.
The reason for the delay in opening the road on time is believed to centre around problems at Drominboy Bog, Lisnagry, that will cost the contractors millions of additional euro to remedy.
Last December, Sean O’Neill, the NRA’s head of communications, said the bog wasn’t a surprise, but the contractors had some “engineering challenges”.
It is understood that tens of thousands of steel reinforced concrete piles have been driven into the bog to support the road, but this extra cost won’t be met by the taxpayer.
Mr O’Neill said their out-turn cost was expected to be €424m – the agreed fee.
“A significant section of my job is to protect the public interest. There is a challenge in the bog area, but that is a known condition. It’s not like the bog showed up yesterday. We defer to the contractor as its their responsibility to get the job done,” said Mr O’Neill.
However, Mr Kelly said that “from an engineering point of view it’s been a bit of a disaster to say the least”.
“People with local knowledge were well aware that the swamp was huge in the Drominboy area. Speaking as someone local whose family originate not too far away from there, it was well known that there was a swamp there, getting a road through there would be very difficult, and the process by which they were trying to go through it was not sustainable.
“I foresee larger problems in time. This is an area that will have to be under continual assessment even when they do get to the bottom of it and feel that they have a road surface that is acceptable. Someone will always need to be analysing it,” said Mr Kelly.
In the last two weeks there were reports of a subsidence of a piece of the road near Annaholty in County Tipperary.
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