Green Isle and Coca-Cola face industrial action
Green Isle Foods in Naas could face stoppages by 40 of its staff next week over the dismissal of three staff for alleged misconduct.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola’s main distribution centres in the Republic are to be hit by industrial action tomorrow.
Disputes between management and staff at Green Isle have been ongoing for a number of months, centring initially on staff allegedly accessing sensitive commercial files and more recently material of an “adult” nature.
According to the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) problems first arose last November when a staff member turned on a computer and discovered an icon entitled “boardroom”. When he opened it, he realised it contained detailed company information, including financial statements. The union said he did nothing with it initially, but months later shared information he found with other staff members. He showed other staff members the information. The TEEU said when the company was made aware that the file had been accessed and disseminated in March it made staff fill in forms detailing what they had seen and saying they faced the possibility of disciplinary action. The union told the workers not to sign any such documents and balloted its 40 members at Green Isle for strike action.
The company took legal action against the workers and the union, but this did not lead to any resolution of the matter.
Now Green Isle has taken staff to task over material found on their computers. Company sources say this material was of a serious adult nature and was very much in breach of company information technology guidelines.
The union on the other hand says it was merely pictures of a “page three nature” at worst and that they had been emailed in to the staff. It said such material did not merit people being dismissed.
The notice of strike action expired on August 17, meaning staff could go on strike from that date. In preparation for such an eventuality, it is understood the company brought in what the union described as “strike breakers” – 40 workers drafted in from other operations in Britain to carry out the work of the striking staff.
The union has sought the intervention of the Labour Relations Commission on the issue, but says the company has refused to attend that forum. It is now believed strike action could begin next week.
Meanwhile, Coca-Cola faces strikes tomorrow over its plans to outsource or make redundant 130 staff as part of a rationalisation process.
SIPTU, which has accused the company of only being willing to discuss redundancies and outsourcing and not any alternative, will mount pickets at the Coca-Cola depots in Dublin, Cork, Tuam and shared depots in Waterford and Tipperary. It emerged last night that some workers had received letters from private transport companies saying that if they accepted being outsourced they would face lesser terms and conditions, something which the union said was a breach of transfer of undertakings legislation.
