Taoiseach to contact employment rights body about row at Greyhound

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has pledged to contact the National Employment Rights Authority about a dispute at Greyhound waste-management company as Independent TD Clare Daly described practices at the company as more suited to The Sopranos.

Mr Kenny said he would also ensure the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) was informed of the situation.

He said it seemed extraordinary that unionised workers should be asked to take a cut of €250-€270 a week without any discussion or notice being given to them.

He found it “equally extraordinary that what appears to be untrained workers driving substantial trucks have been involved in the kind of incidents the Deputy has described”.

Workers at the firm are due to strike officially tomorrow after an unofficial dispute last Tuesday. They claimed they could not access work after they refused to accept a new clocking system and pay cuts introduced unilaterally.

Qualified

Greyhound said the unofficial Siptu action had forced it to employ agency staff but insisted they were all competent, fully licensed and qualified.

Ms Daly said workers were being asked to sign a new contract with a cut of 24 per cent in basic wages as well as cuts in other allowances. Drivers were being asked to take a cut of €250-€270 and operatives cuts of €120-€140.

She claimed it was an orchestrated attempt to undermine unionised workers because the company then got a High Court injunction and through the local Intreo office recruited people to take their jobs. There had been a number of incidents including one employee being knocked down and a truck ramming three cars in St James’s Street.

During Leaders' Questions the Dublin North TD said the company was making routes impossible to complete, and at 5pm when workers go home "a procurer of casual labour arrives at the car park in Woodies and, like a scene out of On the Waterfront, selects people to work through the night to clear the bins that have not been emptied".

Describing what was going on at the company as "practices more suited to an episode of The Sopranos", she called for an investigation by National Employment Rights Authority into employers "the Buckley brothers and into Gary Bogdon, the procurer of casual labour, to verify compliance with all the State's legal, taxation and health and safety requirements".

Ceann comhairle Sean Barrett warned her she could not name people in the Chamber.