TALKS ARE expected to resume today in a bid to resolve the increasingly bitter dispute at Green Isle Foods in Naas, Co Kildare, in which two men are now on hunger strike.
About 400 people took part in a demonstration outside the plant on Saturday afternoon in support of three workers dismissed from the food production plant last summer and 10 colleagues who have been on strike ever since.
It is understood that new proposals under consideration involve payment of compensation for loss of employment.
Local Kildare TDs Bernard Durkan and Jack Wall have been acting as mediators in the dispute.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) says the dispute at the company is over the unfair dismissal of three workers and about union recognition.
It maintains that the sackings were linked to an earlier incident in which a private management file on cutbacks was sent in error to an employee who shared the material with colleagues.
However, Green Isle Foods has 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 company has said that following an external examination of its IT systems arising from the incident over the confidential data, it discovered that a number of engineers had received multiple e-mails from a common external source containing extreme adult material.
He said the material had been downloaded and stored on their personal computer space and in some cases forwarded to other staff.
The company has said that in other cases, staff had downloaded games and movies in breach of copyright policy.
TEEU shop steward Jim Wyse is now in his 13th day on hunger strike, while former Offaly footballer John Guinan joined the protest last week. A third worker is scheduled to begin a hunger strike on Wednesday.
The Labour Court has found the dismissals were unjustified. It recommended the immediate return to work of the TEEU members, no victimisation and compensation for the three dismissed men totalling €180,000 if the company was not prepared to re-employ them.
TEEU general secretary Eamon Devoy last night called on Green Isle Foods to engage in meaningful negotiations. He said it was “time to end its negative campaigning against its own employees”.
