News

SIPTU members at Keelings (Dist.) Ltd in Dublin have voted in favour of an agreement with the company which will generate 60 new jobs while preserving existing pay rates and conditions of employment.

 

The ‘2010 Business Reorganisation – Consolidated Agreement’ was negotiated after management reported financial difficulties last year.

 

The Agreement involves the suspension of wage increases on the strict understanding that a review of wage rates will take place in the first quarter of 2011. The company has agreed to suspend its plans to increase the employment of agency workers by 50% and, instead, to employ up to 60 new permanent employees.

 

According to SIPTU Branch Organiser, Pat Ward, the agreement represents a significant improvement of pay terms and conditions of employment to those proposed by the company. “This innovative Agreement means that we have managed to maintain job security while the management has secured cost savings it needed. It has preserved rates of pay while eliminating the need for agency workers. And it has resulted in the creation of up to 60 new jobs,” Pat Ward said.

 

The company employs 600 people at its Ballymun distribution centre in north Dublin.