WRC hears security guard was paid €4 an hour at Grafton Street shop

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Security guard Michael Ehigiato is pursuing employment rights complaints against BGS Security Ltd, now in liquidation, including claims over unpaid wages, excessive hours and racial discrimination. The Workplace Relations Commission heard he worked an average of 54 hours a week over roughly three months, including one 71-hour week, and told the tribunal he received €2,000 cash-in-hand. His union representative, Nicola Coleman, said this worked out at €4 an hour while he guarded shops including a high-end clothes store on Grafton Street.

Coleman said Ehigiato had sought about €2,800 in outstanding wages and received assurances from the company urging him to keep working. He also told the WRC that a supervisor barred him from using a shop’s staff canteen during a meal break and directed him to eat at the CCTV station on the shop floor. The hearing account records these as claims and evidence presented to the tribunal.