The trade union Siptu is to stage a picket at a hotel in Co Meath over the weekend in a dispute over pay cuts introduced unilaterally for staff.
The union said today that new owners of the Old Darnley Lodge Hotel in Athboy had, within a month of taking over, advised employees in a memo attached to their payslips that with effect from early April they were putting in place the pay reductions of 20 per cent.
The union said that the company had told staff that they would still be paid above the national minimum wage of €7.65.
However, Siptu said that new pay rate for staff at the hotel did not comply with the Employment Regulation Order which determines terms and conditions for those working in the sector outside of Dublin and Cork.
Such wage-setting mechanisms at currently at the centre of a major controversy with Minister for Enterprise and Jobs Richard Bruton seeking to put in place radical reforms to existing arrangements.
Hotel manager Peter McKeon said the hotel would be operating 100 per cent as normal over what was expected to be a very busy bank holiday weekend.
He said the hotel had 82 staff on the payroll and that 75 were very happy to be working.
Siptu said a significant number of the workers at the hotel in Athboy were its members and they had voted overwhelmingly to seek the restoration of their pay by way of industrial action up to and including all out strike action, if necessary.
