Administrative inconvenience

More than 600 Department of Agriculture technical staff will today begin industrial action which could hit food exports and payments to farmers by the end of next month if the issues are not resolved.

The duties of the staff include inspections of farms, meat factories, dairy processors, marts, mills, laboratories, and other facilities.

Their union Impact claims Department management have failed to sustain and expand those duties in line with independent reports which say further substantial savings could be delivered if technical staff took on some of the inspection duties currently allocated to higher paid civil servants and expensive external contractors.

The union said management’s failure to implement the reforms is costing taxpayers and farming communities millions of euro, while putting technical jobs at risk. It said management had refused meaningful engagement on this and other issues.

While today’s action will begin with measures “aimed at causing administrative inconvenience to management without impacting on farmers or the food industry”, the union warned if there was no resolution it will quickly escalate to include actions that will delay grant payments to farmers and disrupt the export of cattle and other agricultural products. That could happen by late February or early March.