Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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27. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if her attention has been drawn to threats of disciplinary action made by the management of a company (details supplied) against employees that took part in industrial action in February 2017; the steps her Department will take to prevent such intimidation when employees exercise their democratic right to take industrial action; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [14436/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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Employment legislation protects from victimisation employees and managers seeking to avail of or availing of their rights under the legislation. This means that employers may not penalise an employee by dismissal, unfair treatment or an unfavourable change in conditions of employment.

Furthermore, dismissal for trade union activity or membership is automatically unfair under Section 6 of the Unfair Dismissals Acts 1977 to 2015.

Where alleged breaches occur, employees concerned can refer the matter to the Workplace Relations Commission for adjudication.

The parties to this difficult dispute are availing of the mechanisms of the State. They both jointly agreed to engage with the Labour Court on February 24th. Mandate has suspended industrial action and the company has agreed to make no changes to contracts pending the outcome of talks. This is a positive sign from both sides and this move by the parties should be respected.

The parties voluntarily agreed to take part in talks under the auspices of the Labour Court and they should be given time to resolve this dispute with the help of the Industrial Relations institutions of the State. I hope that you can join with me in encouraging all sides to make every effort to reach a resolution by agreement between the company management and the workers represented by their trade unions.