Published: 23 Oct 2009
ITF media release on the Dublin Dockers' dispute
The ITF has given a warm welcome to the progress made towards resolving the Peel Ports/Marine Terminals dispute in Dublin.
Ireland's Siptu union (Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union), which spearheaded the defence of Irish dockers' rights during the dispute, has stated that the fifteen week dispute has ended following a decision by the company to accept a Labour Court recommendation on job retention and redundancies.
Siptu reported that the Labour Court recommended an improved redundancy package of six weeks inclusive of statutory entitlements and recommended that the parties engage directly with a view to resolving other matters including the number of jobs to be retained. Redundancies should initially take place on a voluntary basis, it recommended. It also recommended that the selection criteria for any further redundancies should be agreed between the parties.
Issues relating to the terms and conditions of those who return to work and the specific numbers of jobs to be retained have yet to be finally agreed.
SIPTU Regional Secretary Christy McQuillan stated: "We welcome the company's acceptance of the Labour Court recommendation with a view to ending this long running dispute. We welcome the improved redundancy offer and note the Court's recommendation that the parties engage directly with a view to resolving other issues including the number of jobs and the selection process for any further redundancies. It is also noted that the Court has recommended that the parties, should they fail to agree on any of these issues, enter a process of arbitration."
Christy McQuillan, on behalf the SIPTU members involved in the dispute, expressed his gratitude for the assistance of the local communities in East Wall, Irishtown and Ringsend, the International Transport Workers' Federation and other trade unions in securing the progress made in resolving this dispute.
ITF President Randall Howard commented: "This dispute has transfixed Ireland and gone to the heart of its labour relations. Quite simply, it had to be fought. If not the door would have been opened to a collapse of any kind of job security in the country, and this was widely understood both there and among trade unionists - especially dockers - internationally."
ITF Dockers' Section Secretary Frank Leys said: "We in the ITF were glad to have had the chance to support Siptu and its members in stopping the rot whose beginning they spoke out against in July. We congratulate them on this latest development and look forward to all the loose ends being tied up and the whole affair being satisfactorily resolved."
ENDS
For more details please contact:
ITF press officer Sam Dawson on telephone +44(0) 20 7940 9260. Email: Dawson_sam@itf.org.uk
Siptu Head of Communications Frank Connolly. Telephone 00 353 87 251 5986. Email: fconnolly@siptu.ie
See also Siptu press release at: http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/2009/Name,11191,en.html
