Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

I would like to use my speaking time to highlight an issue brought to my attention by Mr. Tom Dwyer, one of 20 workers who lost their jobs recently at H.W. Wilson when it was taken over by a larger American company called EBSCO. That company was named in the 2011 Forbes list as one of the top 200 private companies in America, with revenue in that year of over €2 billion. There was a dispute about the redundancy to be paid, and it went to the Labour Court. The workers, in good faith, were happy with that. The Labour Court found in favour of the workers and was quite critical of some of the claims made in the defence of EBSCO, and pointed out the obvious fact that the company would receive a 60% rebate from the State on the minimum statutory payment it was going to make. The court recommended that all H.W. Wilson employees in Dublin should be paid an ex gratia payment of four weeks per year of service, inclusive of the statutory redundancy payment already received, as it was deemed to be in line with common practice in this industry.

Sadly, EBSCO has ignored the court's ruling. When the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation was challenged here on the issue, he said that neither himself nor the Labour Court could compel companies to abide by the court recommendations as they were voluntary. This was a big disappointment to the workers, who expected a bit more from him. These companies come over here, we treat them well and we are glad that they provide work, but we expect our workers to be treated fairly in response. It is not like EBSCO is a company in trouble or short of money. It turned over revenue of more than €2 billion in 2011 and it has no moral right to refuse the workers a fair deal. If the Government is not in a position even to pressure these companies on the Labour Court, why should we bother having a Labour Court in the first place?

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