Strike to continue as Brinks staff reject proposals

A strike at the cash delivery company, Brinks Allied, is to continue after workers yesterday rejected settlement proposals from…

A strike at the cash delivery company, Brinks Allied, is to continue after workers yesterday rejected settlement proposals from the company.

The dispute over new work practices has caused limited disruption to ATM services in Dublin and elsewhere in the east.

Workers at the company, who are members of SIPTU and have been on strike since Monday, yesterday voted by 36 to 24 to reject the company's proposals.

The proposals were a modified version of a Labour Court recommendation which had been accepted by staff last week, but rejected by the company.

READ MORE

SIPTU said yesterday the company had made two "major changes" to the court's recommendation.

It had sought to extend the trial period for its new Dutch vehicles from the four weeks recommended by the court to four months.

It was also refusing to pay the €750 compensation to each employee as recommended by the court for the time workers had been off the road.

Cash deliveries stopped at the end of July when workers refused to operate the Dutch vehicles or implement the new work practices sought by the company.

They claimed the new procedures would leave them more vulnerable to attack during armed robberies.

Following yesterday's vote, SIPTU security services branch secretary Mr Kevin McMahon said members felt that the onus was on the company to accept the Labour Court recommendation.

"We are now going to ask the Labour Court to call both parties together to review the considered reasons of the company for not accepting the court's recommendation, and why the dispute has been so protracted."

A key issue in the dispute was a direction from management that drivers should leave the scene of an armed robbery, even if that meant abandoning a colleague.

The Labour Court recommended that the "drive-away policy" be deferred for four weeks pending further evaluation.

Yesterday's vote by the workers, who have been on official strike since Monday, was much closer than the 60 to nine vote initially taken in favour of industrial action.

The company declined to comment yesterday.

Chris Dooley

Chris Dooley

Chris Dooley is Foreign Editor of The Irish Times