Published Date: 02 September 2009
By Paul O'Meara
AN industrial dispute at a food manufacturing business in Naas is set to escalate if striking workers succeed in a bid for an all-out picket today.
Thirty five fitters and electricians, members of the Technical Electrical and Engineering Union (TEEU), have been on strike since Monday at Green Isle Foods.
The company has in the region of 650 employees manufacturing frozen pizza products Road and maintains that production will continue as normal while efforts are made to "reach a reasonable and sensible conclusion".
TEEU official Eamon Devoy said an application would be made to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on Thursday for an all-out picket that, if successful, could cause major disruption.
He told the Leader on Tuesday afternoon that the row arose over an email sent by the company to an employee which related to a proposal to make six members of staff redundant as part of a restructuring process.
This information was distributed and Mr Devoy said those allegedly involved were only sharing information about themselves.
This precipitated an investigation by the company which lasted some three months.
"This was a prolonged and stressful process and our members did not co-operate. Our employees do not have access to the internet; only to email," Mr Devoy told the Leader.
A statement issued by the company indicated that the strike came about as a result of "the company's decision to dismiss three of its employees following an investigation into improper use of the company's IT system".
Specifically, the company referred to "concerns that serious adult and other inappropriate material was contained on the company's IT network".
The company claimed that a result of the intensive investigation a number of individuals were found to have possibly breached internal email and internet policy.
"As a result of the intensive investigation, a number of individuals were found to have possibly breached the company's email and internet policy. In each of these cases, investigation and disciplinary meetings were held by Green Isle. Following this, a decision was taken to dismiss three employees from the business. Each of the dismissed
employees availed of the company's appeals process and after consideration of the facts in each of the three cases, the dismissal decisions were upheld," the statement added.
Green Isle Foods maintained that during the investigation and disciplinary process all employees were treated equally and without prejudice.
Mr Devoy further criticised the company for ignoring initial attempts by the Labour Relations Commission to seek a resolution and claimed that the company had brought staff in from the UK to do the work of those on strike.
"The company takes IDA grants but is not willing to use the institutions of the State," commented Mr Devoy.
He also claimed that many people did not turn up for shifts on Monday and yesterday - although this was disputed by a company spokesman.
Mr Devoy said: "We have looked for meetings and they have refused to meet us. I don't know how this will be resolved in the short term."
The company spokesman said Green Isle is happy with the investigation and "this is where we stand on this".
He also said the majority of employees were continuing to work and while Green Isle would talk to elected worker representatives it did not wish to negotiate with the TEEU.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment