SIPTU accuses employers of bullying workers over protest

EMPLOYERS were last night accused of bullying workers with threats of disciplinary action and lawsuits if a planned nationwide protest goes ahead on October 4.

Vice president of SIPTU, Jack O'Connor accused the employer organisation IBEC of descending to a new low in its efforts to stop the protest which concerns employers' failure to pay redundancy deals agreed by the Labour Court.

The planned half-day protest follows two high-profile controversies involving workers at the Irish Glass Bottle Company in Dublin and at Peerless Rugs in Athy.

"Clearly IBEC feels obliged to try to offer some excuse, no matter how lame, for the minority of employers who fail to discharge their obligations to long-serving employees and leave them without a severance settlement," Mr O'Connor said.

"However, it is quite another matter for IBEC to attempt to recruit employers around the country as agents to suppress a legitimate public protest, even though most of these employers would not wish to be associated with such mean-spirited and irresponsible behaviour."

The SIPTU leader was reacting to a warning earlier from IBEC's industrial relations director, Brendan McGinty, who He said absent workers could leave themselves open to loss of pay and disciplinary measures, and that employers reserved the right to take action against unions for any loss, damage or disruption arising from the protest.

Mr McGinty said the four unions organising the protest, SIPTU, the TEEU, UCATT and BATU along with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions had been notified of the employers' position. He also said it beggared belief that trade unions were organising such stoppages at a time when they should be trying to keep jobs rather than undermining them.

The trade unions argue that guaranteeing payment of reasonable redundancy to workers would cost €112m per year out of an expected out-turn of €1.3bn in the PRSI fund. Mr O'Connor said he believed many decent employers would prefer to support a campaign for honourable behaviour rather than being recruited by IBEC to stifle legitimate protest. The SIPTU leader said many employers accept that the current legal minimum for redundancy compensation is grossly inadequate.

"Far from articulating their concerns, IBEC is more concerned to do the bidding of the maverick minority who constitute the unacceptable face of capitalism in the twenty-first century."