GREYHOUND WORKERS AND the company will be represented at the Labour Relations Commission tomorrow after union members voted to enter talks.
Sitpu members at the company voted almost unanimously to engage in talks after the company yesterday accepted the LRC’s invitation.
The meeting will take place tomorrow afternoon at 2.30pm and comes following 12 weeks in which the employees haven’t been working at the waste management company.
They say that they were locked out of the jobs after they refused to accept pay cuts of 35% and changes to their terms of employment.
The company says the workers have been on strike.
Siptu organiser Henry O’Shea said after the vote that they will be attending tomorrow’s meeting, but “cannot see anyone accepting a 35% cut”.
O’Shea says that “something has to give” in the negotiations, accepting that there may be room to end to the dispute with some agreement.
“There’s creative ways of doing things,” he said, adding that he presumes the company also wants an end to the dispute given that they have accepted the invitation to talks.
Siptu has 80 members in the company which has a contract to collect household waste for Dublin City Council.
During the course of the dispute the company have employed temporary workers to undertake collections. Supporters of the workers, including elected representatives, have protested against the use of this staff .
The company went to the High Court and were granted an injunction preventing the blocking of the trucks.
Dublin councillor Michael O’Brien was arrested last week while participating in a protest preventing a Greyhound lorry from collecting rubbish. Action was taken against O’Brien under Section 24 the Public Order Act.
- Additional reporting by Rónán Duffy
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