The chairman of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has told Recruiter that he "wholeheartedly" agrees with a report which suggests that some agencies in Northern Ireland are guilty of bad practice when it comes to migrant workers.

Gary Irvine, who is managing director of Belfast-based Diamond Recruitment, a network of seven specialist companies, said he concurs with the findings of a report by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, which suggests there is "ample evidence of unlawful discriminatory practice" by agencies working with migrants.

Rates of pay and overtime turned out to be less than advertised and those who complained faced being sacked by agencies employing them, the report said.

Irvine added: "I wholeheartedly agree that there are some agencies over here who are exploiting migrant workers for profit.

"But I honestly suspect they are not REC members and if they were, they would be disciplined."

Irvine went on to say that employers had a duty to check who they were dealing with when it came to recruitment, and that "most" agencies in the province were working in a reputable way.

High numbers of migrant workers come to Northern Ireland from such countries as Lithuania, Poland and Portugal to work, mainly in the food processing and hospitality sectors, with the province now home to 30,000 migrants.

While Irvine acknowledged that there could be sectarian issues involving large numbers of Catholic migrant workers, he suggested that the problem was "no worse" than in other countries.

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