When Iaon Rus arrived in Ireland last year to work in the contract cleaning industry he was handed a piece of paper by his employer.

"He told me that was my rights," says the young Romanian. The piece of paper was blank.

"There were a few things that were very bad, but he didn't give us a chance to talk about them. He said there was a flight back to Romania and I was very worried."

Like most migrant workers he came to Ireland on a work permit, which his employer applied for. He was effectively tied to the employer that recruited him. If he left the job, he lost the right to stay in Ireland.

During almost seven months with the Limerick-based cleaning company, Iaon worked seven days a week, from seven in the morning until about 10 or 11 at night. He got his first day off, after three months.

Neither he nor any of his non-national colleagues at the company received even basic instruction on which cleaning solutions to us.

He got "red bubbles" or a rash over his hands and arms from some of the solutions and when he asked about gloves he was told not to ask again.

Iaon was recruited by the company in Romania. He and about 30 other Romanians travelled to Dublin to work for the company. Some stayed in Dublin, others elsewhere in the State.

Iaon and another Romanian ended up in Limerick. "We stayed in a house in Limerick with seven other workers, from Europe."

They each paid £200 a month to stay in the house, owned by their employer, in the Raheen area of the city. A further £80 a month was taken from each tenant - for gas and electricity they were told.

For the house, which would normally command £700 a month rent, the employer was taking in £2,240 a month.

Iaon got in contact with SIPTU after talking one Sunday afternoon with some of his Irish colleagues in the company.

"I discovered they were getting £19 for two and half hours, and I was getting less than £9, for the same work. I said: 'How can this be, that you get so much more for the same work?' And they told me it was because they were in a union."

He has since left the company. By leaving, however, Iaon lost his work permit. He had to return to Romania and wait four months before being allowed to return. He now works for another contract company, cleaning in Shannon Airport.

Cases like Iaon, are, according to the National Equality Authority, becoming more frequent. Despite two years of campaigning, the number of cases involving non-nationals coming to the authority's attention, is increasing.

According to the authority's chief executive officer, Mr Niall Crowley, over 20 per cent of its caseload under the Employment Equality Act last year involved allegations of racially motivated discrimination.

"It is the second highest area of casework after the gender ground," he says. "The experiences of migrant workers raise serious issues in relation to both the recruitment process and the extent to which such migrant workers have a clarity as to their rights before taking up a position."

He also raises questions about the supports available to migrant workers once they arrive in Ireland and the capacity of migrant workers to shape or negotiate their working arrangements.

Some in the trade union movement have called the work-permit system "a form of bonded labour".

Clearly many feel trapped and even frightened to complain lest they are fired and have to leave the State.

A reformed system would give migrants the right to take up any job.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, said the work-permit system was in place so employers having difficulty recruiting staff could apply for permits to effectively import labour. The permit, she agreed, belonged to the employer rather than the employee.

On whether there was any programme to inform migrant workers of their rights, she said information was available in all Irish embassies. Since July, she added, the work permit application requires an applicant worker to sign a declaration, saying they are aware they will be "entitled to the full benefit of all the relevant Irish employment rights legislation", if the potential employer is granted a permit.

There is a work-visa system though the majority of workers arriving here do so under the work-permit system. Over 30,000 have been issued so far this year.

Other sectors where racial discrimination has been documented include the meatpacking, catering and construction industries.

If it can happen in times of economic boom, says IBEC's director of social policy Ms Jackie Harrison, it is perhaps "all the more possible" as the economy faces into recession.

Echoing Ms Harrison, the general secretary of SIPTU, Mr Des Geraghty, said the dangers of racism "grew greater with a declining economy".

Some people may ask: "What is the relevance of all this anti-racism to the rest of us?"

From IBEC's point of view, there are both the moral and the economic imperatives. Pointing out that, with equality legislation in place, implementing an anti-racist policy at work is "just not an optional extra", Ms Harrison adds that the policy is "good for business".

"Any workplace where there's racial tension, or any kind of disharmony, is going to have problems with low morale and absenteeism."

Describing racism as a "dry rot" in society, one trade unionist said this week that if it went unchallenged and unchecked, the effects would damage society as a whole.

"If you want to know what can happen if no one speaks up, just have a look at Nazi Germany or Rwanda. If we let them [racist employers] abuse them non-national workers they'll be coming for us next."