Hundreds of telephone operators working for Conduit, the company which provides a rival directory service to Eircom, were not paid their wages yesterday. A spokeswoman for operators who recently joined the Communications Workers Union, Ms Elaine Jenkinson, says this is the latest in a series of staff grievances.
A company spokesman said the failure to produce payslips or wages on time was due to a computer glitch. Payslips were produced yesterday, a day late, and wages would be paid in full today. A substantial cash float had been made available to deal with hardship cases.
However, Ms Jenkinson said an employee who had to pay £150 (€190) in rent last night was offered a cheque for £60 and another due to go on holidays this morning had no cash to take with him. She said "about half" of the payslips issued yesterday were incorrect. Her own showed she was due only £13.09p for the past fortnight.
The company spokesman said errors in the payslips would be rectified and everyone paid in full today. The incident appears to be exacerbating a long simmering dispute over union recognition. The CWU referred the issue to the Labour Court on September 7th and the company has notified the Labour Relations Commission it will enter the voluntary conciliation process to discuss the dispute. The two sides have yet to meet face to face.
The CWU says more than half the company's 400 telephone operators are members of its union.
