Former workers at Irish Sugar yesterday staged a protest outside the Greencore head office in Dublin and called for the company to pay their redundancy entitlements.
About 150 former workers at the Mallow plant in Co Cork claimed Greencore had refused to honour a Labour Court recommendation awarding Siptu and TEEU members improved redundancy terms.
They also called on Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan to withhold EU reimbursement funds to Greencore until workers had received their entitlements. However, Greencore yesterday issued a statement and said the company had offered to pay the Mallow workers the same as employees at its Carlow plant, which closed last year.
A lot of workers at the Mallow plant, which closed in May, had already taken the package, the company said.
Siptu general secretary Joe O'Flynn, who addressed the group, said Siptu and the TEEU were calling on the Government and the Minister not to distribute the restructuring aid until Greencore honoured in full the redundancy terms recommended by the Labour Court. Greencore's assertion that it was abiding by an old company/union agreement used to close its Carlow plant and restructure the Mallow operation was completely incorrect and misleading, he said.
"The unions will continue their campaign of protest until the Labour Court's recommendation has been honoured in full and implemented by Greencore," Mr O'Flynn said.
TEEU Mallow representatives Gerry Hickey and Donal O'Brien also attended. Mr O'Brien said: "We are fighting for our just redundancy entitlements as recommended by the Labour Court." Mr Hickey said they wanted the EU funding to Greencore withheld until they were paid.
Workers said the Labour Court recommended redundancy payments should comprise six weeks' pay per year of service, based on the workers' final week's salary and not on their hourly rate.
Greencore said it rejected the unions' claim for payment of the shift premium and overtime, which they said was an attempt to get paid double. The workers' protest coincided with a judicial review taken by Greencore in the Commercial Court against the Minister.