Cork's Apple workers to get 9.25% pay increase and €1,000 tax-free voucher 

A key aspect of the deal agreed by Apple workers was achieving pay parity for a significant proportion of production employees, Siptu said. Picture: Dan Linehan

Apple workers in Cork have accepted a 9.25% pay increase, a move towards pay parity, and a doubling of the company’s voucher scheme from €500 to €1,000, ending months of dispute for the tech giant.

The agreement follows more than a year of protracted negotiations between Apple and staff over pay increases and “inequality” among production workers, the union Siptu said.

The deal, which was accepted on September 30 and marked the fourth attempt to reach agreement, gives workers a 4.25% pay rise backdated between October 1, 2021, and September 30, 2022. A further pay rise of 5% will be applied from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023, meaning staff will enjoy a 9.25% pay increase.

Also agreed was a doubling of Apple’s tax-free voucher system from €500 to €1,000, following an increase in the tax exemption in Budget 2023, which staff are set to receive by the end of the year.

Apple’s European headquarters are based at Hollyhill industrial estate on the northside of Cork city and employ 6,000 staff, around 400 of whom are production workers.  

A key aspect to the deal was achieving pay parity for a significant proportion of these production employees, the union said.

Many staff hired since 2015 are understood to have been on fixed-duration contracts and earning less than their permanent colleagues. The deal will grant these employees parity with their colleagues by September 2024 and production staff on the previous scheme will be offered permanent contracts.

Greg Ennis, divisional organiser for manufacturing at Siptu, recently led two days of negotiations with senior Apple management before reaching a deal.

Industrial dispute

Mr Ennis said he made it clear to the company that unless pay parity was achieved there would be no agreement and the matter could escalate to an industrial dispute which “would have been regretful”.

“Siptu will not accept pay inequality,” he said. 

Workers doing the same job on the same shift should get the same pay.

Mr Ennis said he is happy the agreement has been reached and “looks forward to strengthening our relationship with Apple in the years ahead".

Last July, the Labour Court recommended that Apple’s 408 production workers (now 410) accept a 1.25% pay increase in addition to the 3% already agreed by the company. 

Labour Court deputy chair Alan Haugh said it had made the recommendation after considering similar pay settlements at relevant comparator companies in the same region and sector. However, Siptu workers rejected that deal.

Siptu argued that Apple had offered pay increases of 45% to non-union retail workers in the US, but had only offered a 9% increase to its Cork production operators over a similar 39-month timeframe from 2018.