Kerry Group told to compensate staff

Workers at Kerry Group’s ‘Cheestrings’ production plant in Charleville are in line for a €1,000 goodwill payment each.

This follows the Labour Court recommending that Kerry pays the workers, not opting for voluntary redundancy, €1,000 “as a gesture towards good industrial relations and in full and final settlement of all matters raised at the court”.

However, the court has also recommended that the group should commit to granting voluntary redundancy to those employees who wish to leave their employment “at this time of change”. The court is recommending that a minimum of 35 and a maximum of 40 voluntary redundancies should be made available by the company reflective of current circumstances.

Workers were yesterday meeting with Siptu officials to discuss the Labour Court recommendation with the stakes extremely high.

Around 70 workers are employed in producing the ‘Cheestrings’ product and Kerry has warned that “a failure to find agreement in relation to the matters in dispute would result in the closure of the Cheestrings plant with consequent loss of employment”.

Kerry also said acceptance of Labour Court recommendations, by both sides, would result in the continued operation by the company of the Charleville plant.

Earlier this year, workers at the Cheestring plant staged a 24-hour stoppage and scheduled strike action was only deferred after Kerry agreed to attend a Labour Court hearing. During the work stoppage, 30 members of management maintained the production of the snack product.

The anxious times for workers at the plant comes just 18 months after 10 staff members at the plant, dubbed ‘The Chosen Few’ shared a lotto win of €3.88m.

The Labour Court has recommended Siptu members accept the company proposals contained in the document of January 9 this year.

Also as part of the recommendation, the Labour Court said it cannot support the proposal that the premium of 33.33% for four cycle shift working should be supplemented by payment of a premium of double time for all shift hours worked as part of the normal working week falling on a Sunday. The court stated that it, therefore, recommends shift working be remunerated as proposed by the company.

It added that for the avoidance of doubt, and taking account of the protracted and difficult nature of the negotiation of the change needed and the need to maintain jobs, all matters relating to the change discussions commenced in January 2016 should be accepted as concluded and not subject to any cost increasing claims.