A dispute between the Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) and lift company Otis is set to escalate with the union placing further pickets at different sites following yesterday’s protest at Terminal Two in Dublin airport.
The dispute centres on the firm’s decision to make 17 lift engineers redundant last month.
TEEU assistant general secretary Arthur Hall said the company is refusing to implement a Labour Court recommendation with regards to voluntary redundancies.
He said the recommendation advises companies to introduce voluntary redundancies in the first instance and seek compulsory redundancies on a “last in first out” basis.
“Otis in their wisdom has refused to do what their competitors have done and implement the voluntary redundancy scheme in the first instance," Mr Hall claimed. “They [TEEU members] don’t want to be taking industrial action but they feel they have been left with no choice.”
Mr Hall said the union will be placing pickets outside various properties in Dublin, including the Criminal Courts complex, the Square, Dundrum Shopping Centre, Ulster Bank Headquarters and Bank of Scotland Ireland, Arnotts the Jervis Street Shopping Centre, the Custom House Square and Spencer Dock.
“Obviously you can’t go onto private property and picket so pickets will be placed at the entrance to these places...we will not be hindering anybody entering or leaving," he said.
Mr Hall said the union will not be switching any lifts off, because they are high maintenance units. "If the dispute continues more and more lifts and escalators will go out of order," he warned. "We are supplying an emergency service for what we call entrapment and we are also supplying an emergency service to hospitals.”
Work stopped at Terminal Two yesterday when about 500 workers refused to pass the picket.
A spokesman for the authority said it was not a party to the dispute but the site appeared to have been targeted because it was a high-profile construction project.
“Any time lost due to this dispute will have a direct impact on the DAA’s testing and trialling of the systems within Terminal Two, and is also likely to have an effect on the opening date of the new terminal in November,” said the DAA.