SIPTU members employed at Carroll’s Cuisine in Tullamore, Co Offaly, will undertake two additional 12-hour work stoppages on Friday.

Issues centre around the failure of management to engage in discussions on pay, working conditions and union recognition at the meat processing plant.

The announcement comes after SIPTU members undertook initial 12-hour stoppages on Sunday and Monday this week.

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SIPTU manufacturing divisional organiser Neil McGowan said the decision to escalate industrial action follows weeks of management delays and an abrupt refusal to continue talks.

“Workers in Carroll’s Cuisine voted last month in favour of industrial and strike action, but agreed to suspend planned stoppages to allow for negotiations.

"At our meeting on Friday 31 October, SIPTU representatives presented a constructive proposal aimed at ensuring the company’s financial stability while also addressing pay improvements and securing union recognition for collective bargaining,” McGowan said.

Proposal

Management, he added, requested time to consider this proposal, before stating it was not prepared to engage further on the outstanding matters with the workers’ chosen SIPTU representatives.

"Management has chosen confrontation rather than compromise. Our members will not be denied their basic right to fair pay and to be represented by their union. This left them with no option but to escalate the industrial action at the plant," he said.

McGowan added that Carroll’s Cuisine’s parent company Sofina Foods has publicly acknowledged shortcomings in how it has engaged with staff, yet has failed to address the core issues at the heart of the dispute.

“This conflict fundamentally stems from the company’s refusal to respect workers’ right[s] to collectively bargain through their union. Ireland remains an outlier in western Europe in this regard. Working people, like those in Carroll’s, should not be forced into industrial action simply to secure fair treatment,” he said.