Ex-sugar workers to protest at Greencore headquarters

MORE than 150 former Irish Sugar workers are to protest in Dublin on Monday over the refusal by their former employer to pay them a Labour Court agreed redundancy package.

The Greencore workers will gather in Stephen’s Green at the company’s headquarters, where they will hold a protest for two hours over the continued impasse between the company and themselves over the redundancy impasse.

The chairman of the former workers’ group, Kieran Buckley, said they hope the Greencore chief executive David Dilger will agree to address the ex-employees.

The workers will also have a presence at the start of a judicial review sought by Greencore to look into the Government’s decision to allocate only €98 million of a €145m sugar restructuring fund to it. The company believes it was entitled to €135m and has taken High Court proceedings against the Government, claiming it has wrongfully interfered in the matter.

Meanwhile, union representatives of the workers met yesterday with their European counterparts in the Confederation of Trade Unions to seek advice on how to see the entire restructuring fund withheld until the company agrees to meet the Labour Court recommendations. SIPTU’s Gerry McCormack said they visited sugar factories in parts of Europe where the restructuring fund was allocated differently.

“We also found out that Greencore signed up to a Europe-wide code of practice in 2002 which required them to be socially responsible in the treatment of their workers,” he said.

The European Federation of Trade Unions in the Food, Agriculture and Tourism sectors (EFFAT) yesterday criticised both the Government and Greencore for their failure to act in a manner conducive to the rights of the employees.

General secretary Haral Wiedenhofer said: “Greencore does respect neither the text nor the spirit of the European Regulations, which set up a temporary restructuring fund in order to take into due account the respect of social and environmental commitments linked to the abandon of sugar production quota. So far the company considers it as a providential money basket for some financial juggling.

“The European trade unions of the food, beverages and tobacco sector deplore the disastrous and shameful way the reform of the organisation of the common market for sugar is developing in Ireland and express their solidarity to the Irish trade unions, SIPTU and TEEU, engaged in the enforcement of European provisions.”