Recruitment firm CPL has confirmed that it is investigating claims that some staff contracted to the HSE to carry out contract tracing work had not been paid for over a month.
Earlier in the Dáil, Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett raised the situation of 15 contact tracers assigned by CPL to work for the HSE at the contact tracing centre in UCD in Dublin.
He said that they were employed six weeks ago, and claimed they had not been paid for the last four weeks despite working on the front line, and signing off the Pandemic Unemployment Payment to do so.
He said the staff who were critical to contact tracing to keep ahead of Covid-19 had no income to pay bills - and accused the Government of trying to fight the virus on the basis of cheap labour and exploitation.
He also reiterated allegations relating to a previous group of workers who he said had been on zero hours contracts.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the HSE dealt with this issue, and pledged to follow up on the situation, saying there was no agenda not to pay people.
This evening, responding to queries from RTÉ, CPL said this issue relating to some of its contact-tracing staff had been brought to its attention today.
It confirmed it was investigating the matter "as a matter of urgency" and speaking directly to employees to speedily resolve it.
CPL said that as Ireland's leading recruitment and workforce solutions company, employing almost 13,000 people, it took its responsibilities as a major employer very seriously, including paying all of its employees promptly and correctly.
"Our contact-tracing teams are employed on 11-month, specific purpose contracts and are contracted to work 37 hours per week or on a part-time basis as agreed.
"Our process is to pay promptly on receipt of authorised timesheets from our client companies," it stated.
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