Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Earlier this year, the Iceland supermarket chain was sold in its entirety but continues to trade. Conditions for workers in those stores have seriously deteriorated. The big issue for them is that many of them have not been consistently paid for the hours they worked. Many of them are owed quite a lot of money. Their trade union, the Independent Workers Union of Ireland, reckons that at least €11,000 is owed in wages, which flies in the face of the Payment of Wages Act 1991. It is illegal to withhold workers' wages. These workers, many of whom are women, have been working for a long time in the stores on the minimum wage and depend on a weekly wage to be able to put food on their tables.

As a consequence of this and the refusal of management to engage with the union, there will be a strike in Ballyfermot, Coolock, Tallaght and Northside Shopping Centre on Friday. We are asking members of the public to respect those pickets and to support those workers. This is a grave breach of workers' rights. This, more than anything else recently, illustrates the need for legislation on trade union recognition-----

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