immigrants Turn Down Job Offer Prefer To Be Parasites Living Off The Dole

By Edel Kennedy

Thursday March 10 2011

A BUSINESSMAN told yesterday how he was "gobsmacked" when he offered a
permanent job to two workers who had been unemployed for two years -- but both
turned it down because they get more in handouts from the State.

David Lawlor, of Watermark Technology in Citywest,
Dublin, and who owns the distribution rights to Gaggia commercial coffee
machines in Ireland and the UK,
was offering a job in maintenance for an annual wage of €28,000.

A person on the national minimum wage of €7.65 an hour would earn
€15,912.

First,the businessman offered the position to a Romanian national who has
been living here for a number of years. But he quit after just one day.

"He's married, with kids, and is renting," said Mr Lawlor, adding that the
man qualifies for multiple types of social welfare.

"He'd been working for a rival but had been let go two years ago. He started
on the Tuesday and on the Wednesday he said he felt he was entitled to more
money.

"He said he'd get more money on the dole."

Mr Lawlor had pointed out to the man that he could also earn overtime, at
one-and-a-half times the rate, as well as have the use of a company van for
incidental personal use.

"A lot of these guys are handy, so they do nixers; they have that on top of
their dole."

The following week Mr Lawlor offered the job to a Filipino national, who, he
said, had the skills required and had done the "best ever interview". He had
been living here for several years, had four children and drove an "06 or 07
car".

During the interview Mr Lawlor -- who employs 10 people -- discovered the man
had been involved in an industrial dispute with his previous company and had
been unable to find another job.

"He was in a situation where no one would give him a job. But I figured that
I would be able to manage the situation because I work very closely with my
employees.

"But he went home and the next day he called and told me his wife said they
would get more money on the dole."

Mr Lawlor said he was frustrated that, despite receiving almost 300 CVs and
offering the job twice, he still could not find someone.

Secure

"It's a good job, it's secure, and it's well over the minimum wage. Yet we
can't fill it.

"We've got people here who don't want to work, they don't want to be worse
off (than on the dole)."

He said the new Government must tackle the issue for the sake of the
economy.

"There are politicians here but they're not living in the real world where
there are real problems. And until they fix those problems, we're going to go
nowhere.

''If anybody out there is listening, I want them to know this is a real
issue."