Up to 2,000 workers in Irish Ferries and Tara Mines face the threat of layoffs in the near future as a result of disputes involving SIPTU. Over 600 employees at Tara Mines were issued with protective notice yesterday and nearly 1,400 employees of Irish Ferries may be issued with notices next week in a dispute over staffing levels on the company's new fast ferry, the Jonathan Swift.
Tara Mines issued one-day protective notices to 630 workers yesterday, as it awaits a Labour Court recommendation on productivity measures to prevent suspension of operations at the Navan plant.
SIPTU is the main union at the mine, and its branch secretary, Mr Christy McQuillan, said his 320 members would not accept the company's survival plan. Last night he appealed to management for a trial period of nine months to let workers prove the feasibility of alternative proposals which they had presented to the company and the court.
However, the human resources manager of Tara, Mr John Kelly, said the company was concerned that the Labour Court recommendation might not be acceptable to either side when it was issued. "If that is the case we will have to act fast," he said.
The Labour Court is expected to issue its recommendation by midweek.
Meanwhile Irish ferries is expected to issue protective notice to 1,400 employees on its Irish Sea routes if the dispute over the Jonathan Swift is not resolved in the coming week. The company's continental service, which employs 200 people, will not be affected.
Monday will be a critical day at Irish Ferries when ships' officers meet to consider their position. Yesterday the company issued written disciplinary notices to seven SIPTU members who had been transferred from conventional ferries to the new fast ferry and refused to operate it with lower staffing levels agreed in talks at the Labour Court. Eleven other officers, specially recruited for the fast ferry, face redundancy.
Last night the company's human resources manager, Mr Brendan McCarthy, confirmed that warnings had been issued to seven SIPTU members "as the start of a disciplinary process". He said he did not want to anticipate the outcome of the disciplinary procedures but accepted that dismissal was a possibility. The company has already told SIPTU that it will cancel the summer sailing schedule for the Jonathan Swift on the Holyhead-Dublin route from July 2nd if the dispute is not resolved by then. SIPTU has already served strike notice on the company for July 3rd in the event of that happening.