Binmen laid off after refusal to confront bin protesters

BINMEN working out of one of the country’s largest depots were temporarily laid off yesterday, after defying orders to drive trucks to the compound entrance to confront an anti-waste charge protest.

Almost 80 staff attached to the Ballymount depot, which serves 75,000 households in South Dublin County Council, ended up outside the gates alongside protesters after refusing to become involved in the dispute, which has seen demonstrations outside the depot every morning for over a week.

Council management said the action was necessary to demonstrate to waiting gardaí that the trucks could not get past the gate, because of the protest. Gardaí needed the evidence in order to arrest the protesters under the terms of an injunction, obtained by the council in the High Court.

Bin workers refused to obey the order, saying they did not want to be dragged into the dispute by facilitating the arrest of protesters. They were immediately ordered off the depot, and taken off the pay roll.

On previous mornings, bin staff waited for the protest to disperse, before starting up their trucks and beginning their rounds. SIPTU shop steward Kevin Lee said the protesters usually picketed for an hour and left at about 8.30am, and the binmen had worked on late in the evening, and on Saturdays, to make up for the late start.

“We didn’t want to be drawn into a dispute between South Dublin County Council and the protesters. We want to work and if the council had just waited until the protesters had made their protest, we could have got on with our work,” said Lee.

“Someone in the council has decided to make a stand and break this protest, but we weren't prepared to be used to make that happen. The agreement we had with the council was that we would never be put in a position where we would be in direct conflict with the protesters. It’s a health and safety issue. We were assured we would never be put in a position where we might hurt someone.”

Council spokesman Gary Keogh denied there was any danger to staff or protestors. “We didn’t ask them to drive over the protesters - just to drive up to the gate so that the protesters could be removed,” he said.

“We don’t know if tomorrow the protesters will stay outside until 10am, 11am or later. That’s why we got the injunction, but there is no point in us having an injunction if we can't enforce it,” said Keogh.