Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

Last Friday, the Authentic Food Company's plant in Dundalk went into interim liquidation. The staff of 180, some of whom have given up to 25 years of loyal service to the factory, look set to lose their jobs. The dogs on the street knew for some time that things were not right. Appeals from staff for clarity about the future intentions of the company fell, unfortunately, on deaf ears in recent months and weeks. The Unite trade union, the representative body of the workers, was conscious that the firm appeared to be in very choppy waters. Local management, unfortunately, appeared to be sidelined and left in the dark. We know there are no jobs in a closed factory and the union knows that as well. On that basis, the Unite trade union did the responsible thing and formally contacted the company's parent operation in the UK.

As any responsible trade union would, Unite sought on several occasions to meet the key decision-makers from the company formally. The union sought to establish the nature and extent of the problems at the Dundalk plant and to offer to work with the company if it needed to engage with the union to change course and ensure the survival of the operation. Time and again, however, the union's approaches were rebuffed and stonewalled. The union was, frankly, given the two fingers by the operation. Against this backdrop and as the clock ticked towards the appointment of a provisional liquidator last week, workers at the plant reported the transferring of profitable production lines from the Dundalk facility to the parent company's facilities in the UK.

Given what we know and the Dundalk company's refusal to engage with its staff and the union, I can only conclude that the operation in Dundalk appears to have been deliberately run down. Last week, the parent company in the UK pulled its support. The Irish operation is a subsidiary of the UK parent. The Minister of State and, more appropriately, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, need to take a close look at this. The behaviour of the Irish arm of the company and the activities between it and its parent in the UK need to be examined formally and forensically. All too often we have seen workers left on the street as companies hide behind the protection of the courts in deemed insolvencies where fancy footwork and sharp practices are used to put assets beyond the use of redundant workers and other creditors. Those are assets that should normally be used to pay decent redundancies and moneys owed to small businesses. We have to be vigilant. After the debacle of Clerys, we said that the law would and should change to protect workers better in insolvencies.

The Duffy-Cahill report, entitled Expert examination and review of laws on the protection of employee interests when assets are separated from the operating entity, was brought to the Government in April 2016 but no action has been taken since. Now, 180 workers in Dundalk are in a desperately uncertain set of circumstances. They have not formally been made redundant and they are not legally entitled to the 30 day redundancy notice period to allow them work with their trade union on an enhanced or improved redundancy package. They have not earned any money since the plant closed and, despite the great support they have received from officials in the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection in the area, without a P45, entitlement to social welfare is moot. They also cannot or will not take up alternative employment because they hope that, somehow, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland or other State agencies might find an alternative operator for the facility in Dundalk. In the meantime, life goes on, mortgages and rent need to be paid, bills need to be paid and families need to be fed.

The law needs to be changed. Does the Government intend to change the law as it applies to workers caught up in insolvencies like this? Will the Minister of State and his colleagues support the workers and the union in their efforts to seek social protection support for the workers and trade union members in that plant over the next short period?