SIPTU and the TEEU, the two largest unions at Element Six, have both denied that the reason for a delay in the Labour Court hearing regarding the current dispute is because a union official is on holiday. Last week the matter was referred to the Labour Court after little progress was made at the LRC, with proceedings set to begin on September 17.

An earlier date had been available, but according to management, the unions wouldn’t accept it because someone was taking holidays.
However both unions have flatly denied this was the case. “That’s incorrect. There was an earlier date put forward, it would have been next Monday, but it was changed to next Thursday, because we wouldn’t have had our submissions in on time,” said Mary O’Donnell of SIPTU.
This was echoed by Pat Keane of the TEEU. “The court gave us a date of Monday, September 14 and we said that was okay, but we’d only be able to lodge our submissions on the day.
“After that they changed to Thursday because they wanted to be up to speed on the submissions before it,” he claimed.
CEO Cyrus Jilla claimed that unions are too focused on the severance package being offered, to the detriment of job protection, but Mr Keane denied this.
“We have indicated time after time to the company and to the LRC that once this issue (the severance package which unions claim is too small) is out of the way, we will have no problem sitting down to discuss other parts of the plan.”
He was also critical of the letter sent by Mr Jilla to all the Shannon employees this week. “The company is using bullying tactics. There is a mechanism there to bring about a resolution and that’s through recognised third parties.”
A spokesperson for management restated their view that the Labour Court hearing is being delayed because of the absence of one official.
“The Labour Court communicated verbally to Element Six that the reason it was put back was because a union representative was on holidays and it was also said to us by workers,” he commented.