Bin collections at thousands of homes and businesses across 12 counties are set to be disrupted by strike action next month at Bord na Móna’s waste and recycling operation.
Siptu is to serve notice on Tuesday of a two-day stoppage by about 250 of its members at the company in a dispute over the protection of terms and conditions as the operation is sold off to KWD, a Co Kerry-based waste disposal firm.
The two-day strike is scheduled to take place on Wednesday and Thursday, April 2nd and 3rd, with further action to be called if the dispute is not resolved, the union said.
Siptu has been seeking a meeting with Minister for the Environment Darragh O’Brien to make its case for stopping the sale of the country’s last publicly-owned waste disposal operation, something it says will result in the State exiting a sector key to the implementation of environment policy.
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The dispute relates to concerns that the terms and conditions of staff will gradually be eroded should the company be privatised.
Bord na Móna has said the terms of the more than 400 staff will be maintained, but Siptu wants a registered employment agreement, which would set out existing arrangements and be lodged with the Labour Court, to protect the workers in the longer term.
“Obviously, we’re still trying to stop the sale and privatisation of the company,” says Siptu division organiser Adrian Kane, “but we accept that’ll be a political decision if it’s what the company wants to do.”
He said assurances have been offered “but if the they are serious about what is being said, then there should be no problem with signing a registered employment agreement”.
The company has about 130,000 domestic and commercial customers, thousands of whom would be affected by the initial two-day strike if it goes ahead as planned.
Depots in a dozen counties, including Dublin, Wexford and Laois, will be hit by the action at the company, which is a prominent waste collector in parts of the midlands and southeast.
Mr Kane claimed the sale was a mistake and would lead to higher charges for customers. There has been criticism of the company’s failure to publish the terms of the sale.
The move represents a blow to the union’s wider campaign to have bin collections taken back into public control, with Mr Kane saying the system in Ireland has led to chaotic overlapping of services in cities and an absence of service provision in some more remote areas.
