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Union slammed after officials laid off

Thursday, 12 June 2008

A Northside based trade union has found itself in the somewhat unusual position of being picketed by a number of its former officials.
The officials began picketing outside the Building Allied and Trade Union head office on Blessington Street, Dublin 7, after they were suddenly made redundant on May 1.
According to former BATU official Rob Kelly, the union ignored what he claimed was a widely accepted ‘last in - first out’ redundancy policy.
“The union selected myself and another colleague for redundancy over two other people who have worked there for a lot less time,” he alleged.
“I have worked with BATU for four years and my colleague has worked there for eight years, yet two men who kept their jobs had only been working there for around four years. I know that because we trained them in.”
Mr Kelly added: “BATU even refused to take the matter to the Labour Relations Court (LRC) as was suggested by a conciliatory officer. That goes against all trade union practices.”

BATU’s problems with its own workers doesn’t end with the two redundancies. Other union employees are also picketing the BATU offices over controversial pay cuts.
“Without any consultation into the matter, the remaining workers were told they would have to take a 10 per cent reduction in their pay,” Mr Kelly claimed.
The disgruntled former employee has faced severe financial difficultly over the past month, forcing him to remortgage his home just to survive.
“As a former worker with a trade union, we above all know what our rights are and we are sticking by them,” he stated.
“BATU is making a farce of trade union work practices.”
Fellow former worker Tom Fitzgerald claimed BATU added insult to injury with the timing of the redundancies.
“We got this forced redundancy package on May 1, which was International Workers’ Day,” he explained.
“They have kept an employee I once trained in and have ignored practices which are sacrosanct to any trade union.”
He added: “The ‘last in – first out’ policy is the objective criteria which beats at the heart of all unions.”
He concluded: “To have workers strike against their trade union employer is an extremely odd and unusual situation.”
Paddy O’Shaughnessy, General Secretary with BATU, confirmed the union had made two of its officials redundant.
“This is the first time the union has ever made someone redundant so the ‘last in - first out’ policy did not apply,” he told Northside People.
“This is a difficult situation but unfortunately it is a reality given the downturn in the building trade.
“Many of our workers have been made unemployed. These members are not paying to be in a union and so we have suffered financially.”
Mr O’Shaughnessy added: “Of course it doesn’t look well to have workers picketing outside our office each morning.”

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