Ex-workers ask Coughlan to block Greencore funds

FORMER workers at Irish Sugar in Mallow yesterday called on Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan not to pay Greencore its share of the European Union sugar industry restructuring fund.

A delegation told the minister during a one-hour meeting in Kanturk, Co Cork, that workers are owed large sums of money by the company because it had failed to honour a Labour Court recommendation.

Spokesman Kieran Buckley said European Commission personnel told union officials in Brussels this week that restructuring funds can be withheld in such circumstances.