A judge will rule next week whether to confirm an injunction prohibiting picketing in an industrial dispute which has left almost all of Ballymun’s remaining flat blocks without working lifts.
Just two out of 27 lifts are operating in nine remaining eight-storey blocks and in the 14-storey Plunkett Tower, because it has not been possible to maintain them due to pickets placed by striking repairmen, the court has heard. Some 450 families and four wheelchair-bound individuals are affected.
Ms Justice Mary Laffoy today continued to early next week a temporary injunction granted on Tuesday to Dublin City Council against the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) over the dispute which arose last February when the lift repair contractor, Pickerings, sought to make seven of its employees redundant.
The city council terminated its contract with Pickerings and argued the pickets were no longer lawful because there was no dispute between it and the TEEU. The pickets remained in place until Tuesday when the court granted its temporary order.
Today, the TEEU urged the court to lift the injunction saying the union had a bona fide dispute and had complied with legislation by holding a secret ballot of the workers and serving a week's notice of its intention to strike.
Arthur Hall, TEEU assistant general secretary, said in an affidavit there had been a number of attempts to resolve the matter through the the State's industrial relations machinery but Pickerings had refused to engage with it.The company also insisted it would only offer statutory redundancy to the workers it wanted to lay off although it was a profitable company, Mr Hall said.
Anthony Kerr, for the TEEU, argued the pickets were legitimate because Pickerings still has a store and lock-up unit in Ballymun.
Roddy Horan SC, for the city council, said that suggestion was "nonsense on stilts."