Management at Greencore was accused of displaying a "voracious appetite for greed" by refusing to pay union members their redundancy payments, while once again announcing record profits.
The accusation came from the Siptu general secretary, Mr Joe O'Flynn following the announcement of the company accounts .
"In the run-up to Christmas, the workers who helped to build and sustain the company through many years of loyal service are now surviving on unemployment benefit," said Mr O'Flynn. "Instead of paying the workers what they are due, they plan to develop a €1.1 billion property site - using €146 million allocated from the EU as part of an industry compensation package."
The company also came in for criticism from the Bishop of Cloyne Dr John Magee who said the situation at Mallow Co Cork, where Greencore workers have yet to be paid redundancy "cannot be morally justified"
He has called on Greencore to pay the redundancy to its former workers in line with an agreement it entered with them in 2004.
In a statement issued from the Cloyne diocesan office in Cobh, Co Cork, yesterday Bishop Magee said that he had recently met with a delegation of former workers from the Irish Sugar factory in Mallow, Co Cork, which is in the diocese.
He said he fully understood the facts of the case. "I strongly endorse the Taoiseach's statement in the Dáil on November 22nd last, that the company should honour the recommendations of the Labour Court and pay redundancy under the terms of the 2004 agreement."
Sinn Féin's agriculture spokesman Martin Ferris said the level of profit announced underline the case being made by former sugar factory workers for a better redundancy deal.
"The fact that Greencore has posted such colossal profits having exited the sugar industry reinforces the need for the company to honour its original commitment to a proper redundancy package for its former employees," he said.
"The company has refused to comply with a Labour Court order and is arrogantly flaunting its massive profits and moving into property development, while former workers are being short- changed," he added.
"I am yet again calling on the Government to bring pressure on Greencore to honour its commitments and to share at least some of its profits, produced by the very workers it is now callously abandoning, with those who have lost out in its transformation from a major food processor to an asset-stripping property speculator," he concluded.
There were no statement from the farm organisations on Greencore's profit announcement. A compensation package for farmers is being delayed by the legal action taken by Greencore which is challenging the amount growers should receive.
