The telecom company Talk Talk has written to an Irish MEP accusing her of "negligent misstatement" after she raised the company's plan to close its Waterford call centre in the European Parliament, which will result in the loss of 575 jobs there.
Earlier this month Labour MEP Phil Prendergast asked EU Employment Commissioner Lazlo Andor to consider if the closure of the facility at one month's notice was in breach of any EU directives.
She also asked if sanctions could be taken under EU rules against companies behaving in such a manner.
Talk Talk has written to the Ireland South MEP to ask her to immediately retract her statement.
She has accused them of double-talk and says the letter amounts to a "thinly-veiled threat" of legal action.
The letter says employees had not yet been given notice, and that this would not happen until a 30-day consultation process had concluded, or until 30 days after the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation was notified of the proposed redundancies.
It added that if the closure goes ahead employees would receive their full legal entitlements.
