A second worker at a Co Kildare food production company has gone on hunger strike as part of a lengthy dispute with management over the sacking of three members of staff.
Former Offaly All-Ireland footballer John Guinan today joined shop steward Jim Wyse on hunger strike outside the Green Isle Foods plant in Naas. Mr Wyse has been on hunger strike for the past week.
Some 13 maintenance craft workers have been on strike at the plant since last summer in protest over the dismissals .
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) said the sacking of the three workers was linked directly to an incident in which a private management file on cutbacks was sent in error to an employee who shared the material with colleagues.
However yesterday, in its first extensive public comments on the case, Green Isle Foods said the dismissals were not linked to the issue of the confidential data but rather related to breaches of its IT and copyright policies.
The finance director of the company JJ Ryan said that following an external examination of its IT systems arising from the incident over the confidential data, the company discovered that 13 engineers had received multiple emails from a common external source containing extreme adult material. He said that the material had been downloaded and stored on their personal computer space and in some cases forwarded to other staff.
Mr Ryan said that in other cases staff had downloaded games and movies in breach of copyright policy.
The general secretary–designate of the TEEU Eamonn Devoy said the cases were absolutely linked and that the same individuals were involved in both incidents.
Mr Devoy said the material in the emails that had been referred to by the company was of the type that could be found in the normal situation in any office or factory. He said that some of the material had been sent by operators in the plant and no disciplinary action had been taken against them.
Mr Devoy said that during the six-month strike, the company had refused to engage with the Labour Relations Commission, Labour Court or the National Implementation Body.
Mr Ryan said that the company did not recognise unions. He said it had not been asked to go to the Labour Relations Commission and did not go to the Labour Court as it was not the correct forum for dealing with the issue.
He said that the company believed that the issue should have been dealt with at the Employment Appeals Tribunal or by a Rights Commissioner under unfair dismissal legislation.
He said the involvement of the National Implementation Body was supposed to be confidential but that details of its intervention had been leaked. He said the company believed this intervention was being used as part of a political agenda.
Mr Ryan said the company had engaged in a mediation process last weekend and he hoped this process could continue in the days ahead.
Mr Ryan said that the company had certain principles that it would not breach and had a level of difficulty regarding the re-instatement or compensation of individuals who had broken rules on downloading adult material or breaching copyright.
Mr Wyse said that he was starting to feel the effects of the hunger strike and that he was experiencing some tiredness and quesiness . However he said that he would continue with the action until a resolution was reached.