SIPTU members at a creamery near the Kerry-Cork border are frustrated, angry and very upset.
That’s according to SIPTU industrial organiser Sharon Ryan, who met with union members working at North Cork Co-Op Creameries.
North Cork Co-Op Creameries, based in Kanturk in the Duhallow area of Cork, told its staff last Wednesday that it was ceasing production.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suspended the milk processor’s wastewater discharge licence for the second time in three months following persistent environmental issues.
Staff were told they were to be made redundant, while suppliers, some of whom are based in Kerry, were told at a meeting on Thursday that their milk would no longer be processed in Kanturk.
84 of the creamery’s approximately 100 staff are members of SIPTU.
The union met with its members in Kanturk on Monday, but senior management was unavailable to meet.
SIPTU industrial organiser Sharon Ryan says she requested a meeting with senior management when the announcement was made last week, but says she did not receive a reply.
For collective redundancies such as this, the employer must notify the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment of the proposed redundancies and consult with employees’ representatives, such as SIPTU, for at least 30 days.
SIPTU does not believe North Cork Co-Op Creameries has notified the minister yet, nor that the 30-day consultation period has begun.
