A 24-hour work stoppage at a Meta data centre in Clonee by members of Connect that had been due to start on Monday morning was deferred after the trade union said it was instead referring the dispute to the Labour Court.
The union, which represents craft workers, says the dispute involves critical facility engineers (CFEs) whose rostering arrangements were, it claims, changed without consultation.
Connect said it would be bound by any Labour Court recommendation in the dispute and called on the company to engage on the same basis.
In a statement relating to the deferral it contended a refusal to do so on such a basis would make head of Meta Ireland Anne O’Leary’s position as Irish Business and Employers Confederation (Ibec) president “untenable”. and “would also call into question the credibility of the organisation’s role within Irish industrial and employment relations”.
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Ibec said it has “a diverse membership spanning small to large businesses across various sectors. Ibec respects and supports our employers to operate in the very professional, stable voluntarist model that has delivered strong employment and economic growth whether they choose collective bargaining or direct engagement models”.
“This has always been the position of Ibec as a broad representative body and does not in any way call into question our credibility in the industrial relations environment.”
Meta declined to comment.
Numbers involved in the dispute were small and it was suggested backing for the strike among the union’s members fell away last week.
Connect said this was because of pressure on individuals by the company which, it said, had told members of the workforce their jobs couple be outsourced. It accused the company of “union-busting’.
This was denied by Meta which said that while it did not engage directly with trade unions, it had consulted with the staff impacted by the roster changes over a prolonged period of time “to discuss the change and agree ways in which their existing highly competitive compensation and benefits package would be adjusted to reflect the change”.
It said no threat of jobs being outsourced had been made to employees.
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