Meat factory recruitment is under scrutiny as Revenue and the Department of Employment and Social Protection examine the role of a payment scheme used by a firm which supplied foreign factory workers. An Irish Farmers Journal investigation has revealed a complex legal web of meat factory recruitment methods that includes subcontractors and agencies.
Meat factory recruitment is under scrutiny as Revenue and the Department of Employment and Social Protection examine the role of a payment scheme used by a firm which supplied foreign factory workers.
An Irish Farmers Journal investigation has revealed a complex legal web of meat factory recruitment methods that includes subcontractors and agencies.
This meant the firm did not have to pay tax and PRSI contributions for those workers in this country
Documents seen by this newspaper reveal a scheme that had been operating in which foreign workers in Irish meat factories were registered as sole traders in Poland and paid their tax in that country instead of Ireland. This meant the firm did not have to pay tax and PRSI contributions for those workers in this country.
It also meant the workers were not entitled to any of the social security supports such as illness benefit payment from the Irish Government.
The German government has recently placed a ban on subcontractors in meat plants, meaning all factory staff will have to be directly employed by the factory from January 2021.
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