Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

It is true that Greencore has done very well from the package. Unfortunately, it is not true that the workers, growers or the economy have done equally well from the manner in which the Government has handled this issue. We are left with a site which has tremendous development potential for the company but not necessarily for the generation of wealth and certainly not for the growers and workers directly concerned. The fact is that there is a Labour Court recommendation. One would expect a major public company to give its allegiance to the voluntary industrial relations system in operation. It is not doing this. The Labour Court has spelled out in crystal clear terms that the workers' interpretation is the correct one:

For the avoidance of doubt the court wishes to again state that it intended in the recommendation that the staff on annualised hours salaries should have their ex gratia lump sum calculated by reference to their full unadjusted salary applicable at the date of redundancy plus 20% as provided for in the company-union agreement.

There is no argument here. The legal issues raised by the Taoiseach arise from the manner of distribution of the compensation fund where the company is arguing that the Minister gave a disproportionate amount to the growers and that it honoured the redundancy settlement. It did not honour the redundancy settlement and growers argue they received too little but the company has the hard neck to go to the High Court to seek a judicial review on the basis that the compensation was intended for it.

The Taoiseach stated the company ought to give its allegiance to the industrial relations machinery but, coming up to Christmas, workers who received none of their redundancy compensation want to know where is their money and whether the Government will vindicate their rights. The workers concerned have done nothing wrong. They did everything by the book. They went to the Labour Court and returned there three times. The Labour Court ruled in their favour three times yet they still have not received the money.

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