On a recent visit to Limerick, Mr Michael Dell, the sixth richest man in the world, addressed a mass meeting of his employees where he extolled the virtues of the company, its revenue growth and its profits.
The 2,500 assembled workers, each with a can of Coke and a Mars bar, listened to the pep talk, until one raised his hand and asked bluntly, "What's in it for the ordinary worker?"
The question was perhaps a bit unfair to Mr Dell, who after all, in his book, Direct from Dell, talks of the US company's culture which "reduces politics by focusing on results and aligning the interests of our employees with those of our shareholders".
That is, it offers a share option scheme and encourages employees to put up to 15 per cent of earnings into share purchases at a reduced price.
But the question does sum up concerns of some Limerick workers who have found that the problem is there is too much work and the company demands a degree of flexibility of them which puts their social lives in abeyance. This month, when demand for PCs has again fluctuated, manufacturing employees are working 12-hour shifts and have also been requested to work a weekend shift. After agreeing to it, they often find that the shift ends short of the number of hours they expected.
Mr Pat Casey, human resources director, says overtime is not compulsory, nor does it have any effect on promotional prospects. But there is an "expectation" that workers will stick to as many hours as they can. "We are in the high-tech electronics industry. We want to be number one from an employer's attractiveness perspective."
But one worker, dismissed for gross insubordination and verbally assaulting his supervisor last March, took an Employment Appeals case which was settled before it went to hearing. He received back pay and a good reference from the company.
The man, who declined to be named, saying "if I give you my name, I will never get a job in Limerick again", describes a company which, he believes, has a bad name in the region for its worker practices. He contends that workers are threatened with dismissal if they refuse to do overtime. He says many factory operatives do not collect on their share option schemes because they are either temporary staff, or they leave within a year and are therefore not eligible for them.
He worked at the plant for three years and says most of the people who began with him have left. Dell's attitude is "terrible", he says.
Describing a regime of harassment, he says he never used bad language and was under pressure, both to continue working in Dell and to curtail his hours, because he has a young family and a mortgage.
"Your body can only take so much. Come the weekend, you need a break and we were not given a break," he said.
Mr Alan O'Leary, a SIPTU branch secretary, who took the Employment Appeals case on behalf of the dismissed worker, says representation remains an issue at Dell as with other, sometimes Irish, employers. Dell does not negotiate with trade unions.
The perception, he says, is that everything is "hunky dory". The reality, he says, is different. "In an era of consensus, it should have more responsibility towards accepting that trade unions are part of the 20th century and part of collective bargaining," Mr O'Leary says.
He adds that there has been regular occurrences where Dell workers have looked for representation at SIPTU because the management has taken a harsh line. This ranges from moving workers from an agreed shift at short notice to the extreme of dismissing them if they have difficulty with a management decision. "We have agreements with other reputable companies in Limerick working in the electronics industry. We have flexible agreements catering for that demand," Mr O'Leary says.
Mr Casey says it is not the company's philosophy to deal with trade unions. "We have a very positive relationship with our own employees. It works successfully.
"People have a right to be a member of whatever they like. That is not the issue. For Dell, that is our philosophy and how we operate the Dell team."
