Siemens workers seek Government help over jobs

STAFF who have been told by their employers to move to Britain to keep their IT jobs vowed last night to fight for their rights.

The group of 24 workers based at Siemens IT Solutions and Services (SIS) in Blackrock, Cork, pleaded with the Government to examine the issue in detail to protect them, and other IT or call centre workers in Ireland who may face a similar situation.

Labour TD Ciarán Lynch said he would try to raise the issue in the Dáil today.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU) first raised concerns after SIS, which employs 250 people, told 24 staff providing customer support services for British firm Yell that the contract was being terminated from May 2. Yell plans to provide the service from its own facility in Reading, England from May 3.

Siemens claims the jobs are simply moving under a “transfer of undertakings protection of employment” (TUPE) process, and a redundancy situation does not arise.

Last night, the company said discussions with employees are “ongoing and SIS will work to reach a satisfactory conclusion in the coming days. Severance terms have been offered to all impacted employees. SIS is of the opinion that the termination of the contract is governed by TUPE regulations. Accordingly, SIS has structured its communications and consultation on this basis.

“SIS will honour all its contractual obligations to its employees.”

The company said it is a significant employer in Cork and is not closing.

Trevor Anderson, 28, who has worked for Siemens for four years, is one of the workers affected by the move. He said another affected worker is a young single mother who simply could not move to Reading. He said they are all “confused, baffled and angry” at the way they have been treated and are very worried about the future. “We just want to be dealt with properly and fairly,” he said.

CWU organiser Fionnula Ní Bhrogáin said this is the first time the union has come across such a case.

She said the affected staff are direct employees of SIS and must be dealt with fairly by the company.

CWU general secretary Steve Fitzpatrick said: “Siemens are treating its Blackrock customer service staff with contempt by claiming that their jobs simply transfer to a location in the UK under a new employer.

“Furthermore, this ‘new employer’, Yell, has correctly rejected the Siemens version of what is happening.

“This incredible action by Siemens can only reasonably be interpreted as a blatant attempt by the company to avoid any obligations it has to make redundancy payments to its employees.”

SIS said that it acts responsibly in dealing with all employees.

Mr Lynch called on all sides to sit down and thrash out the issues. “Siemens lost the Yell contract, and they are no longer in a position to employ these workers. The company must now sit down with them and sort out this situation properly,” he said.