Food firm to seek confidentiality order

A LEADING food manufacturer will today ask the High Court to order a number of its staff to maintain the confidentiality of information which they allegedly accessed on its computers.

Green Isle Foods in Naas suspended four staff on full pay last Friday after it was alleged they accessed confidential company information on the company’s computer system.

The information, which included commercially sensitive data on company profitability and employment plans, was allegedly transferred to a memory stick.

The Technical, Engineering Electrical Union (TEEU), which represents the workers at the centre of the controversy, has reacted to the suspensions by serving notice of industrial action to begin on Friday.

The staff concerned are refusing to sign the undertakings sought by the company, arguing that they would be used as the basis of disciplinary proceedings against them.

Staff sources say the information, which was not password protected, was accessed accidentally and then downloaded. Staff brought their concerns over the content, which included plans for a small number of redundancies, to management, which responded by running computer checks to establish the source of the leak.

The TEEU represents about 40 key engineering staff at the Naas plant which makes pizzas under the Good Fellas brand. The union says it does not question the right of management to investigate employees but it takes issue with the decision to suspend staff where no wrongdoing has been proven.

“The present dispute is around the suspensions and only the suspensions, and we accept the right of management to carry out any investigation as they see fit and any disciplinary procedure necessary provided that this is done in a fair and equitable manner,” said a statement by TEEU shop stewards.

The dispute has caused concern among other staff, who fear it could affect the viability of the plant.

The company recently agreed a number of voluntary redundancies as production was moved from three shifts a day to two. Green Isle is owned by the giant British manufacturer Northern Foods.