In what is sure to be a hugely significant decision, and one that will impact heavily on the employment of foreign workers in this country, the High Court have today ruled that Muhammad Younis, from Pakistan, is not entitled to a Rights Commissioner award of €92,000 because his employment contract was substantively illegal. In a slight change from our normal Landmark cases feature this case judgement has just been handed down and we will now see the impact of this judgement in Employment legislation and best practice. RTE has today reported that Mr Justice Gerald Hogan noted that the Rights Commissioner had found that Mr. Younis had been the victim of the most appalling exploitation by his employer by being underpaid and forced to work excessive hours. However, he said Mr Younis had no effective recourse in respect of that exploitation.
This decision will impact on the way undocumented workers are potentially treated by dispute resolution bodies in their quest for workers rights. The judge said he was concerned that the Employment Permits Act 2003 had perhaps produced consequences that were not foreseen or envisaged, because it meant that any employment contract involving a non-EU migrant worker without a work permit was substantively illegal. He said specifically it may not have been intended by the Oireachtas that undocumented migrant workers, not least a vulnerable one such as Mr Younis, should be effectively deprived of the benefit of all employment legislation by virtue of his illegal status, even though he or she may not be responsible for or even realise the nature of the illegality. According to RTE the Judge has said he intends to transmit a copy of his decision to the Ceann Comhairle, the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad and the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation so that the Oireachtas may give consideration should it think fit to do so, to the policy implications for the 2003 Act as manifested in his judgment. It is worth noting that Mr Younis had entered this country legally with a work permit, but according to him the employer who had exploited him had rendered him illegal by failing to renew his work permit. The issue of Migrant workers has been prominent recently with our recent article on the judgement awarded against Tesco in the UK, and I am sure this will be a very topical issue in the coming weeks and months.
