IRISH Life is set to dismiss over 400 staff as the dispute over restructuring its sales force worsens. The company will begin holding disciplinary hearings against staff tomorrow and move to sack staff who have refused to comply with its new structures.
Unions at the company will meet on Thursday to discuss the dispute which has simmered for more than a month. It is likely that Irish Life offices will be picketed in support of employees who are dismissed.
No negotiations to try to resolve the issues involved took place over the weekend, although both sides have said they are available for talks.
Irish Life wants to redeploy up to 430 sales staff (known as PFAs) in new sales teams. These staff have declined to co operate with the new arrangements.
Last week, employees rejected a compromise formula, aimed at moving the dispute towards a resolution, although it was recommended by their union negotiators.
National secretary of the Manufacturing Science Finance union (MSF), Mr John Tierney, said the problem was the field sales staff had no confidence in management any more and felt they were being railroaded into the new arrangements. He said it would be helpful if the company had removed the deadline it had imposed.
Mr Tierney said the situation would lead to a "lock out" and it looked like staff would be escorted off the premises. He said the dispute procedures and dismissals would probably occur on a rolling basis.
Mr Tierney added that the meeting later this week would decide on the employees' next move.
An Irish Life spokesman said the disciplinary hearings would "make it clear that, if staff refuse to co operate with the new structures, they will face dismissal".
He said the sales force was refusing to work in new structures, but the old ones did not exist any more. The company was left with a vacuum and it was preparing to fill it.
"If there is a serious prospect of holding talks to try to move the process forward, we would listen," he added, "but there does not seem to be any evidence of that now".
He acknowledged that the situation was a very serious one for Irish Life, which faced the embarrassing prospect of a very damaging public dispute.
He said the company was already suffering in a very competitive market because of the dispute.
However, he said, the company had postponed three successive deadlines for resolution of the dispute and it could not let the situation drag on.
MSF has argued that not all procedures have been exhausted. It said the field sales managers had 24 meetings with the company to negotiate new contracts and work practices, but the sales representatives had only had 10.
