Updated: 11pm
GREYHOUND WORKERS HAVE voted to end the 14-week lockout at the waste disposal company.
SIPTU members employed by the company voted by a substantial majority in favour of ending the dispute at a meeting in Dublin’s Liberty Hall this afternoon.
The ballot followed intense negotiations over the weekend between SIPTU representatives and Greyhound management.
The agreement includes a redundancy package of two weeks pay plus statutory entitlements of two weeks per year of service for the workers who have decided to leave Greyhound Recycling and Recovery.
Thirteen of the workers who are remaining with the company will retain their previous terms and conditions. These workers will work on a Dublin City Council contract to collect waste from social housing units and will be selected according to length of service at the company.
Employees who are remaining with the company but will not be working on the social housing contract have agreed a wage reduction of between 15% and 20%.
These workers will also be compensated for the changes in their terms and conditions of employment by receiving a payment of a sum equal to 30% of the redundancy package to which they would have been entitled if they were leaving the company.
SIPTU Utilities and Construction Division Organiser, Owen Reidy, said the agreement would “hopefully” bring and end to “a long and difficult period for the workers and their families”.
“Throughout, the workers have remained united and it is this solidarity that has made an agreed solution to this dispute finally possible,” Reidy said.
“The fortitude of the Greyhound workers’ elected representatives and the SIPTU organisers involved in this dispute has been a key factor in the union’s ability to negotiate an agreement with management.
“The support that these workers received from communities throughout Dublin and local elected representatives was also instrumental in a solution finally emerging that was agreeable to both sides,” he added.
Greyhound CEO Michael Buckley also welcomed the news, saying the company was now “looking to the future”. He thanked customers who had “stayed with us throughout this difficult period”.
“The settlement gives the company the flexibility to ensure the security of some 400 jobs in the Dublin area, and that we continue to provide much improved customer service standards for our 140,000 plus domestic customers.
“We will now be looking to the future and to continuing with our goal to be the number one domestic waste collector in Ireland. In line with this ambition, we will be announcing a number of innovative customer service initiatives over the coming months that will, we are sure, be welcomed by all of our current and prospective customers,” Buckley stated.
Greyhound workers began picketing the plant in Clondalkin, Co Dublin on 17 June after their wages were cut by 35%.
SIPTU has 80 members in the company, which has a licence to collect household waste in the Dublin City Council area.
Originally published 14.34
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