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TRADE UNION SIPTU has hit out at moves by Killarney Golf Club to make 24 out of 40 staff redundant.
The dispute was brought before the Labour Relations Commission last year before being referred to the Labour Court earlier this year. An independent assessor was then appointed to evaluate the club’s financial position.
SIPTU sector organiser Dennis Hynes criticised the company’s continuance to seek redundancies, saying that management “has shown complete intransigence in relation to changes in the operation of the business.”
“Workers are particularly angered that such an approach is being shown by a business whose majority shareholder is the State agency, Fáilte Ireland,” he said.
Adding that employees had already agreed to take a five per cent wage cut and are willing to engage with management “on other changes”, Hynes said that the recent assessors report had shown that the company’s financial position did not warrant such redundancies:
The assessor’s report indicated that management had greatly exaggerated the financial difficulties of the club. The report concluded that a degree of restructuring and some job losses were necessary to ensure the business’s profitability rather than the 35 per cent pay cut and enforced redundancy of the majority of staff which is being sought by management.
A recent recommendation by the Labour Court said that it was clear “that a significant number of redundancies” would have to be considered.
The court also said that the company’s decision to no longer to offer ex-gratia payments as part of a redundancy package would make agreement unlikely “unless the company can find the means to alter its current stance in that regard.”
A Labour Court judgment on the dispute is expected in the coming weeks.
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If the money is not there to keep these people employed its not there. Job loses are inevitable with the state the country is in. Never nice to see people lose their job but the business must be saved first and put back on recovery with new ideas. Maybe then these people can be re-employed.
Who says the money is not there? In fact, if you read the report, it says that an asessor’s report found that management greatly exaggerated the financial difficulties of the business.
Have you ever heard of the concept ‘race to the bottom’? This sounds like a classic case. Golf clubs throughout Ireland have been struggling to maintain their extortionate membership fees. They are having to reduce the prices. When this happens there is a squeeze on incomes on all staff and management. It is natural for staff and management to protect what they have, but as management have control of the cheque book it is easy from them to identify those without the cheque book to be the ones to take the hit.
This is Killarney 2013, Ireland’s premier tourist destination, in the year of ‘The Gathering’. Tourism figures are on their way up – Staff Wanted!
Not every tourist to killarney plays golf. Business is business. They will hire staff if the need is there not just for the sake of it.
2k per year by 2000 members means they have income of 4m plus green fees etc. to maintain 3 courses and a fishing club. The report says they exaggerated the financial difficulties – it doesn’t dispute that they have financial difficulties.
Once again unions causing a storm ……..
I seem to remember something similar in the K Club a few years ago. Did staff at the time of the Ryder Cup postpone industrial action and pay claims until after the event? Did those staff then not get “let go” after the international cameras were gone? So it the not the same thing all over again?
It smells like a jobbridge stroke to me.
“has shown complete intransigence in relation to changes in the operation of the business. – Coming from a trade union is pretty rich
Off topic here but why is a state agency a major stakeholder in a golf course?
And someone tell siptu to shut up.
A judge will say what’s going to happen, they’re nothing but windbags.
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