“Migrant employee went 48 days without break in Kerry food outlet, WRC finds”

There has been a surge in cases of migrant workers being exploited, forced to work without breaks or days off, and expected to put in weeks of 70 hours or more.

The Migrant Rights Centre (MRCI) said its caseload of exploited workers has doubled in the space of a year. It was commenting after the Workplace Relations Commission found that a migrant restaurant employee went 48 days without a break in a Kerry food outlet. He was awarded €23,000 for gross breaches of his employment rights. ..

MRCI, which supported his case, said it has a further 25 similar cases in the pipeline — double the number of worker permit exploitation cases it worked on last year. It has called for an urgent review of the State’s worker permit system…

The call came arising out of the case of Suman Bhurtel, who was working with a GEP as a chef de partie with Chicken Castle Ltd, trading as Chicken Club on Main Street, Castleisland…

Satwinder Singh, secretary of the company, insisted that Mr Bhurtel worked a 39-hour week from Tuesday to Saturday…