Members of the trade union Unite held a protest outside an AIBP meat-processing plant in Clones, Co Monaghan, yesterday to demand better pay and conditions for a group of predominantly migrant workers.
Unite organiser Jim Quinn alleged that workers at one of the company's Clones plants, who were doing the same job as colleagues in the company's other sites, were being paid at a lower rate.
"AIBP recently opened a new boning plant in Clones where we know [ it] is paying lesser terms and conditions, to mainly migrant workers, than those in the existing plant in Clones," he said.
About 20 people took part in the protest, and Unite said it would be raising its concerns with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions next week.
A spokeswoman for AIBP said it disputed the validity of yesterday's protest.
"The company notes that the majority of people on the protest were not and never have been employees of AIBP. The company categorically refutes any suggestion of exploitation of any employee on the basis of nationality or any other basis."
AIBP invested up to €10 million in the Clones plant in 2007. It currently employs 185 in this facility and says a further 80 new jobs will be created in the coming year.
"AIBP is committed to all its employees, its farmer suppliers and to the locality," the spokeswoman added.
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