Greyhound Recycling bosses’ Labour Court claims rubbished

✶ Video – Hundreds rally in support of locked-out Greyhound workers

SIPTU Divisional Organiser Owen Reidy has described as “completely misleading and false” claims by the millionaire owner and management of Greyhound Recycling and Recovery that its enforcement of a 35% wage cut on workers is in line with a Labour Court recommendation.

“The repeated claim by Greyhound owner, Michael Buckley, and other company spokespeople that the savage cut to wages and conditions of employment on their full-time employees is in line with a Labour Court recommendation is completely misleading and false,” Owen Reidy said.

“The company’s actions, in fact, directly contravene a Labour Court recommendation which stated that further talks should be entered into by management and workers’ representatives to find a solution to the cost crisis in the company.”

The recommendation made in May states:

“The parties engage in a concentrated process to identify and cost the level of labour productivity savings that can be generated within the business and to agree on further adjustments to the wage bill necessary to return the Company to viability.

“The talks should be completed within 14 days of the date of this recommendation. The parties should engage the services of suitably qualified financial and productivity advisors to assist them through this process.”

Owen Reidy said:

“Rather than fully accept this recommendation the company has decided to unilaterally implement massive cuts to the wages of its workers and hugely inferior terms and conditions of employment without further negotiation. Knowing that no worker could accept such conditions the company prepared for dispensing with the services of its workforce.

“More than 70 members of SIPTU and their families cannot afford this attack on their incomes and are determined to remain on the picket lines until the company agrees to return to the negotiation table and to find a reasonable resolution of the issues at stake.

“Our members greatly appreciate the wide public support for this action which has thrown a light on the appalling and worsening employment standards in the privatised waste disposal industry.”

❑  ON MONDAY, several hundred people joined the locked-out Greyhound workers in a march from Liberty Hall to lobby the monthly meeting of Dublin City Council, where a motion of support was passed in solidarity with the workers.

Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí Doolan said during the Dublin City Council debate:

“This dispute goes far beyond Greyhound. It goes to the core of how this industry is managed. Since the privatisation of the waste collection service it has led to this essential service run by cowboys.

“Despite commitments from the Fine Gael and Labour Party Government to regulate the industry, this has yet to happen. This has led to management locking Greyhound workers out of their jobs. These workers have been replaced by agency workers who are being exploited by Greyhound in their battle to drive down wages and conditions.

“The Chief Executive of Dublin City Council should immediately enter discussions with trade unions with the view to bringing the domestic waste collection service back in to City Council ownership.”

•  Below: Dublin City Sinn Féin Councillors Daithí Doolan and Deputy Mayor Larry O'Toole with Sinn Féin South Dublin County Councillor Eoin Ó Broin on Monday's Greyhound workers' solidarity march