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Costello calls on Gormley to intervene in contract cleaners dispute

Issued : Thursday 16 July, 2009

It is time for John Gormley, Minister for the Environment, to intervene in the industrial dispute which has been ongoing since the 1st July and which had SIPTU pickets at every entrance to the Custom House this morning.

The Custom House is the Minister’s place of work as it is the workplace for hundreds of civil servants. It should be a centre of excellence for industrial relations.

Thirteen contract cleaners in the Custom House have effectively been sacked by the new company Schorman Contract Cleaning Limited, which replaced the old Eco Management Facilities Company and refused to retain them under the Transfer of Undertaking Regulations. All of the thirteen cleaners are women, mainly from the Inner City and some have been working in the Custom House for up to eight years.

It is an absolute disgrace that they should be treated in such a cavalier fashion, particularly in these difficult economic times when it is virtually impossible to get another job.

No Government Minister should be passing official pickets and no Minister should be obliging his staff to do likewise.

I am calling on Minister Gormley, who is also Leader of the Green Party, to intervene positively in the dispute and ensure that the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations are implemented by the new company and that the thirteen contracts cleaners are re-instated.