Care workers from Zimbabwe, who allege they paid thousands of euro each to a recruiter to secure work permits, have told a tribunal of living in “freezing” shared accommodation without their wages after the jobs they were promised in the Republic failed to materialise.
Testifying to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) this week, one of the workers said she was threatened with having her work permit cancelled when she asked about going to another job she was offered.
Another said she was left without income for months and had to eventually leave a staff house when the landlord arrived, threatening to change the locks.
Shingirirai Chiwaridzo, Nombeko Hlabangana, Brenda Mubaiwa, Tatenda Ncube, Allen Phillip Ndhlovu, Nicola Sibanda, Nobuhle Sibanda and Agapao Munashe Zvihari are each pursuing complaints under the Payment of Wages Act 1991 against their former employer, Unity Healthcare Services Ltd.
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The Migrant Rights Centre of Ireland (MRCI), which is representing the six women and two men, says they are owed months of unpaid wages each, plus repayment of sums allegedly charged to procure their work permits. The company is disputing the complaints.
Giving evidence to the WRC, the workers said they were approached in Zimbabwe and paid fees of between €2,000 and €3,600 to Unity Healthcare or one of its directors in 2022 or 2023.
Giving evidence, worker Nobuhle Sibanda said Unity Healthcare chief executive Londiwe Maphosa quoted her €1,000 to secure a work permit and informed her she would have to pay €3,000 in total when accommodation costs were factored in.
“I couldn’t raise the whole amount. I raised €2,600,” Ms Sibanda said in evidence. An offer letter, contract and non-disclosure agreement were sent to her after she wired the money to Ms Maphosa’s co-director in the firm, Bruce Magama.
Most of the group flew to Ireland at their own expense in December 2023 or January 2024 after being told they were going to be starting work within weeks at a care facility that was set to open in Virginia, Co Cavan, they said.
The pay on offer was in the region of €560 a week on a base hourly rate of €15 an hour, the tribunal heard.
Several of the workers moved into a staff house Unity had rented near the centre and training was held for some, but the jobs failed to materialise, the tribunal heard.
The company director, Mr Magama, told the hearing the centre’s opening had been “delayed”, and referred to attempts to arrange employment elsewhere for workers.
He said one healthcare firm had been “willing to take” staff, but Ms Sibanda said her understanding was that the other company had made it clear that it was “not taking anyone from Unity Healthcare”.
The tribunal was told that at one point, seven workers were living communally in the staff house, some two to a bedroom, others bedding down in its diningroom.
Another worker, Agapau Munashe Zvihari, said her mother had arranged temporary lodgings for her in Galway, but after the delays, her landlady said: “We have to go to Cavan and see if you have this job.”
Her landlady had formed the view that the company was being run by “scammers”, she said. When she spoke to Ms Maphosa, she was told: “You signed an NDA [non-disclosure agreement]. Why are you talking to these people you’re staying with about our company?”
Ms Chiwaridzo said the workers at the staff house were “scared to talk”.
Ms Maphosa – who was married to Mr Magama, the witness said – came to the house on one occasion and “shouted at us” for answering questions from another worker about the opening of the centre.
Some of the workers were able to earn small amounts of money cleaning houses or doing childminding, the tribunal heard.
Several workers gave evidence that the company undertook to pay them €100 a week while they were waiting for work, but that this arrangement stopped after three weeks, and some further small ad hoc sums were given to some who complained about financial circumstances.
However, others said they received no money at all from the company which had brought them to the Republic for work.
Ms Chiwaridzo said the workers living at the staff house pooled their resources to try to pay for electricity, food and heating. “It was just not enough,” she said.
Under questioning by Mr Magama, she said the businessman had been sending “money for food” from January to March 2024 and making some contributions to the heating bill, but “not consistently”.
Ms Chiwaridzo said she needed a “letter of no objection” from Unity Healthcare, as the sponsor of her work permit, to release her and allow her to take up another employment contract.
It took from first asking in March 2024 to October that year to get the letter – by which time two job offers had fallen through, she said.
Brenda Mubaiwa said she had left “kids at home” to come to to the Republic and work, but had only ever been paid €300 by Unity Healthcare. Ms Mubaiwa said that to pay for her son to sit exams, her mother had resorted to borrowing money.
The workers were giving evidence to the WRC on Thursday. The matter has been adjourned by adjudication officer Breiffni O’Neill, who will hear the evidence of a ninth complainant at a later date.
Pretty Ndawo and Sylwia Nowakowska of the MRCI appeared for the workers. Mr Magama appeared on his own as respondent.
