Gama Construction Ireland has told the Employment Appeals Tribunal that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment was aware that it was not the employer of a Turkish worker on whose behalf it submitted an application for a work permit.
It said the department had come to an arrangement under which workers employed by Gama Industry (a separate company in the overall group) would be granted work permits. It said that Gama Industry was not registered here and that it would have been impossible for it to apply for work permits for its workers.
Gama Construction Ireland is appealing a recommendation made by a rights commissioner in relation to one Turkish employee, Mehmet Orgun Tuzun, who worked here from October 2004 to May 2005.
The company's case is that the rights commissioner erred in finding that Mr Orgun had been its employee.
Laurena Hughes, solicitor for Gama Construction Ireland, said the man had been employed by Gama Industry in Turkey and had been seconded to Ireland pursuant to a contract of employment. She said he had also been paid by Gama Industry.
The tribunal heard that the rights commissioner had referred to an application for a work permit for the man signed by Gama Construction Ireland.
Ms Hughes said an application for a work permit "cannot confer an employment relationship where one does not exist".
She said Gama Industry had sent about 800 workers to Ireland under an inter-company transfer facility to work on infrastructural projects. She said Gama Construction Ireland was the host company and Gama Industry was the employer.
Ms Hughes said the department had suspended the transfer facility in October 2002, halfway through the construction projects.
She said the department "had come to an arrangement" that work permits would be granted to the workers.
Ms Hughes said Gama Industry was not registered in Ireland and it would have been impossible for it to apply for work permits.
She said the department had been "fully aware who the employer was" and it had seen the contracts.
Tribunal chairman James Flanagan asked whether Gama Construction Ireland had made a false statement on the application for the work permit in question.
Ms Hughes said there had been a practical solution.
Mr Flanagan asked whether the company was saying that the department had turned a blind eye to the false statement made on the application.
He later said the tribunal considered the suggestion that the department had been aware that Gama Construction Ireland had not been the employer at the time of the work permit application to be "quite a significant matter".
Mr Flanagan said that it would bring the matter to the attention of the department.
The case was adjourned until the end of August.
