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SIPTU members employed at the Eli Lilly plant in Kinsale, County Cork, have secured a Labour Court recommendation stating that their employer should allow them the right to individual and collective representation by their trade union in workplace disputes.
SIPTU Sector Organiser, Andrea Cleere, said: “Our members are demanding the right to collectively bargain with their employer on matters inclusive of pay and conditions. However, this employer was even denying SIPTU members the right to be supported by the Union in individual workplace issues which is contrary to Statutory Instrument 146 of 2000.
“We presented our case on this issue to the Labour Court at a hearing in late May. The Court has now issued a recommendation stating, ‘That the Employer recognise the Union as the representative of those operatives who are in membership of the Union and should engage with it in dealing with the issues which are subject of this claim’.
“Management did not attend the hearing which is its right under the current industrial relations legalisation. This again illustrates the weakness of the voluntarist industrial relations system operated in Ireland when it comes to securing workers’ fundamental rights, including those to trade union representation on a collective and even individual basis.”
Cleere added: “SIPTU has written to the company regarding the provisions outlined by the Court, to date it has made no response which indicates a blatant disregard for the State’s industrial relations bodies.”
SIPTU Manufacturing Divisional Organiser, Neil McGowan, said: “Last month, the SIPTU Eli Lilly Committee made a submission to the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, Peter Burke, as part of the public consultation process on Ireland’s action plan to promote collective bargaining. The EU Directive of Adequate Minimum Wages calls on the governments of EU Member States to draw up an action plan to increase collective bargaining coverage in their economies to over 80%, in Ireland it is estimated to currently be under 35%.”