Workers at the North Cork-based food co-op Dairygold are to be balloted on industrial action from today after SIPTU accused management at the company of pressing ahead with major work practice changes without agreement with the union.
Management at Dairygold has written to SIPTU seeking the postponement of the ballot but the union has confirmed it will go ahead.
Dairygold is currently implementing a redundancy programme which will see 500 workers lose their jobs. The majority of the remaining 2,500 workers are members of SIPTU and the union says the company has contracted out work and has begun re-allocating the duties of redundant workers to other employees without agreement with the union.
SIPTU is also angry with the company for enforcing a small number of compulsory redundancies, although Dairygold says it has deferred some of these pending adjudication by the Labour Court on the fairness of selection procedures.
In addition, a meeting between both sides to be chaired by the Labour Relations Commission is scheduled for Cork this Wednesday, while a meeting of the company's Joint Negotiating Forum is scheduled for Thursday.
Dairygold has asked SIPTU to postpone its ballot for industrial action until these meetings are completed and industrial relations procedures have been exhausted. The company has also asked the Labour Relations Commission to intervene.
A Dairygold spokesman said management and SIPTU had agreed to abide by good industrial relations practices at talks last month chaired by the Labour Relations Commission. The spokesman insisted that the company was experiencing mounting losses which would lead to the failure of the business if they weren't stemmed.
The ballot will continue throughout the week and the result is expected to be known by Friday.
