Emergency ECAS workers have met with TDs and party representatives at Leinster House to highlight the "oppressive nature of the working environment".

Speaking after the meeting, Sinn Féin's Peadar Tóibín said: "First of all, these are emergency service workers. They deal with some of the most horrific human tragedies imaginable day after day. They talk to and manage people who are at the scene of suicides, bank robberies and car accidents, situations such as the recent Buncrana tragedy and recent gang murder at the Regency Hotel.

"They work for BT/Conduit on a state contract that pays a wage so low that the highest earning worker, with 13 years' service, receives Family Income support. They are given 19 minutes in a 12 hour shift for toilet breaks, recovering from stressful calls such as suicide, water breaks etc. The firm had demanded that each worker ask permission for a toilet break and report back when the toilet break was over. Workers have been suspended for up to 6 months without the details of allegations made against them being made known to them.

"It is shocking that the state is providing a contract to BT/Conduit and yet BT Conduit refuses to attend the state's industrial relations infrastructure, the WRC. It is shocking that Fine Gael/Labour's so called collective bargaining process allows companies such as BT/Conduit ignore the workers' representative union.

"It is also shocking that Labour's Acting Minister Alex White who oversees this contract has stated that he has no responsibility at all in the resolution of this problem. Indeed, it is noteworthy that the Labour Party was the only political party that did not send a representative to this important presentation today."

(MH/LM)