Novum staff strike is last resort

SIPTU pickets at refrigeration manufacturers Novum, in Clonshaugh, County Dublin, were supported by Sinn Féin Councillor Larry O’Toole and local representative Denise Mitchell last week when they took strike action over company changes in lay-off procedures.
The official strike by more than 80 workers follows a unilateral decision by the company to hand-pick staff to be laid-off rather than it be done on length of service (i.e. ‘last in, first out’). Workers told Sinn Féin that Novum has recently laid off staff with 20 to 30 years’ service while others with only one or two years’ service have been kept on. SIPTU branch organiser Gerry Lynch said:
“Our members offered a number of alternatives to management but all compromises were rejected. There is already a level of frustration among workers at the plant due to the fact that two phases of the national wage agreements are now outstanding.
“The workforce has been left with no alternative but to defend their position on lay-offs.”

IBEC hypocrisy on consumer price index

THE trade union Unite has accused IBEC of “hypocrisy” this week after the employers’ body attempted to manipulate the measurement of inflation on which talks will be based “to suit its own arguments”. IBEC is demanding a switch from the existing Irish consumer price index (CPI) to the EU’s harmonised index on consumer prices as a guide to inflation during future pay-talks.
 “The last time this arose the EU measure was higher and IBEC fought to retain our own CPI,” said Jimmy Kelly, Regional Secretary of Unite. “Now the shoe is on the other foot and IBEC wants to put the boot into Irish workers, pensioners and social welfare recipients for whom the CPI is a key element in how their income is calculated. The motive is to justify the demand for low wage increases.  The timing of this call on the eve of critical pay talks is deeply cynical and is an insult to working men and women, the elderly and the poor.”
Kelly said that Irish workers earn well below the average wage levels in the ‘EU-15’.  In addition, Irish workers suffer from some of the highest prices in Europe.  “IBEC wants to compound this by imposing real wage cuts in the economy.” He added:
“These pay talks have to address the real needs of real working people.  That IBEC should call to change one of the key indicators of those needs when last time it insisted on it remaining a central point smacks of hypocrisy.”

Chinese worker awarded €15,000 by Equality Tribunal

A CHINESE woman who was accused of theft while working at the Spar supermarket in Drimnagh, Dublin, has been awarded €15,000 after taking a case to the Equality Tribunal on racial grounds. The tribunal found that the company did not follow fair procedures in dismissing the woman, did not carry out an investigation and denied her the opportunity to seek representation, prepare a defence and attend a disciplinary hearing.
The complainant outlined how, after eight months of employment, she received a phone text from the shop to say she had been caught on a CCTV camera in the shop stealing bus tickets. After two days she received a second text from another staff member saying that she had been sacked.
The equality officer in the case said that employers had a positive duty to ensure that “special measures” are taken for foreign national workers to ensure they understand disciplinary proceedings that are taken against them.