Joe Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

Management at the Dairygold plant in Mitchelstown is seeking to implement a draconian regime in an attempt to cap direct labour costs at €3.8 million per annum. Such a regime would undermine Irish jobs and result in an influx of cheaper eastern European labour. Management is threatening to close down Dairygold's meats division if workers do not agree to a rate of pay of €9 per hour, or gross pay of €351 per week, for all sections of the plant. Such a rate of pay would mean a loss of up to €150 per week for some of the plant's workforce of approximately 150 people.

I raise this matter because I feel that Dairygold is trying to introduce sweatshop tactics. It is embarking on a systematic campaign to force Irish workers who earn the average industrial wage out of jobs, thereby making way for migrant workers who will be paid at a rate marginally above the minimum wage. We are witnessing the systematic dissolution of the social partners' hard-fought gains, to be replaced by "yellow pack" jobs. The Government must intervene to protect Irish jobs against an influx of cheaper labour from eastern Europe. It is an insult to the people of this country and the workforce of Dairygold in Mitchelstown, who have always been loyal to the company, to expect Irish workers to survive on €351 per week.

I have mentioned that management at the Mitchelstown plant is trying to cap its labour costs at €3.8 million per annum. Such a draconian regime would undermine Irish jobs and lead to an influx of cheaper labour from eastern Europe. The company is threatening to shut its meats division if workers do not agree to a rate of pay of €9 per hour, but that rate has been rejected by 95% of the workforce. If agreement is not reached with SIPTU, the company may try to sell Galtee Meats. It has been suggested that the managing director of the company, who used to work for Kerrygold, is preparing for a possible take-over of Dairygold by Kerrygold.

The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment should intervene under the Companies Acts to investigate the Dairygold operation at Mitchelstown before it is too late. I remind him that 1,200 jobs at Dairygold have already been lost in the Mitchelstown area.

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