The talks at Government Buildings are seriously bogged down on the almost unresolvable issue of the displacement of Irish workers with cheaper non-nationals. With employers strongly resisting union demands to introduce more legislation to protect not just the minimum wage but also the much higher 'going rate', the unions could hardly resist using the dispute at Moneypoint to heap the pressure on the bosses and the government at such a critical time.

The ESB had already resolved the Moneypoint dispute the week before the TEEU called its press conference to detail how vigilant local union members in Clare and north Kerry . . . who had been passed over for work at Moneypoint . . . had discovered that the Polish workers were being underpaid.

The union said that the Polish sub-contractor, ZRE Katowice, paid 65 of its workers from Poland 5.20 an hour as against the agreed rate of 18.97 per hour. Its investigation had also established that the workers' payslips showed no PAYE or PRSI deductions or subsistence allowances. The union added that, while the Polish company paid its workers to return to Poland for four days every six months, it only stumped up for a plane trip to Liverpool and then a lengthy bus trip to Warsaw.

The ESB, however, said it employed an independent agency on the site whose sole job was to ensure all contractors and, more particularly subcontractors, adhered to locally agreed wage rates and conditions.

This checking system had revealed that since early January 2006, the Polish company had indeed underpaid its workers but that the deficit was 4 to 6 an hour.

By 3 March, the semi-state had secured a commitment from the Polish company to pay the higher rate plus back money owed to the Polish workers. It warned ZRE Katowice . . . which has been sub-contracted by the lead contractor at the Moneypoint site, a German company, Litjes . . . that it would audit its payroll at the end of March again and would review its contract at Moneypoint if it was not satisfied.

So the ESB was a bit taken aback last Monday when its 'softly softly' approach to this embarrassing problem was blown apart by the TEEU press conference. But it would appear that the union's manoeuvres may have done the trick. The very next day, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Micheal Martin, said a more rigorous approach is to be adopted to enforcing employment legislation.

It is understood that the department is now prepared to concede to the union's basic request for a souped-up labour inspectorate, set up in a new, independent agency.

Currently, the 31 labour inspectors . . . who check that employers are adhering to the correct rates of pay, holiday entitlements etc . . . are attached to Martin's department, and the unions claim the inspectors' work is stifled by the dominant 'Enterprise' aspect of the department.

Martin's concession now leaves Ibec isolated in its opposition to moves to strengthen worker protection. The Moneypoint revelations are likely to force the employers' body to soften somewhat, though employers are still likely to resist moves to introduce new legislation to guarantee workers 'going rates', whatever they may be. The employers still argue that the national minimum wage of 7.65 per hour is among the highest in the EU and is more than adequate to guard against any exploitation of Irish workers or foreign workers.

The employers still argue that the unions are exaggerating the displacement problem, and the TEEU might be accused of massaging the Moneypoint issue to put pressure on the national pay talks. But the fact that a major semi-state company such as the ESB . . . which is regarded as a good employer and enjoys good relations with the unions . . . has been stung like this indicates the problem may at least be wider than the employers have acknowledged so far.

As one management source at Moneypoint put it last week: "If the ESB gets caught up in this, what must be going on among the hundreds of smaller sub-contractors around the country?" According to one Siptu official, the catchphrase among less-than-scrupulous 'subbies' with regard to the plentiful supply of eastern European workers is: "Buy one, get one free."

Fresh from the TEEU's victory for Polish workers at Moneypoint, the union is now demanding that ZRE Katowice should employ local labourers from north Kerry and Clare who have traditionally relied on work at Moneypoint.

Ironically, the union's triumph last week may now makes this harder. The Polish workers in Moneypoint were paid 3 an hour for the same work in Poland and were queuing up to come to Co Clare to get almost double that. Now they are getting 19 an hour, or more than six times the wage they could expect at home. This is equivalent to a supermarket checkout worker here on a top rate of 450 a week getting a senior-executive-style salary for doing the same job in Warsaw.

The Moneypoint deal, then, is likely to attract an avalanche of eager Poles to Ireland wanting to cash in on their colleagues' victories . . . displacing even more Irish workers in the process.