I have written consistently in this website of the hazards of work. Those hazards are very old. The excavations of Pompeii revealed the skeleton of a sixteen year old boy whose upper torso was excessively developed from physical work in fishing and whose teeth on the right side of his mouth were worn down to nothing by gripping the lines used to catch the fish. (From âPompeii,:The Living Cityâ?, [2005] Butterworth & Laurence, Weidenfeld & Nicholson p. 240)
In Ireland, currently, workers from Eastern Europe have particular hazards to contend with:
a) They have a higher death rate in work-related accidents than Irish workers; and
b) They have the Irish Government whittling at their rights to compensation;
Unfamiliarity with Irish life; unfamiliarity with the English language; unfamiliarity with the possibility of recovering compensation for injury or the systems for getting it are the explanations for why these particular hazards are so difficult for the foreign worker.