Publicly funded firms not attending court

An increasing number of companies funded by public money are refusing to attend hearings of the industrial relations machinery of the State and/or refusing to be bound by their recommendations.

The Labour Court has described as “disconcerting” the failure of Cavan and Monaghan Community Area Services to attend the court for a hearing in relation to what Siptu described as the company’s refusal to recognise the union for industrial relations purposes.

In his report Labour Court chairman, Kevin Duffy, said the union had written to the company seeking a meeting but received no response other than looking for the names of the union members. The matter was referred to the Labour Relations Commission. He said the company would not commit to attending the LRC and again requested the names of the union members, but they were reluctant to give their names “for fear that they would be discriminated against in the workplace”.