Killarney Golf Club staff to take strike action

Workers at Killarney Golf Club are to take strike action in May, one of the busiest months of the year at the largely State-owned club, over redundancy proposals announced by management last week.

Siptu workers at Killarney Golf Club, which last week said it was seeking to let go 21 staff, just over half its total number, voted on Thursday night to take strike action following what Siptu says is a management refusal to engage constructively with the Labour Court in relation to the proposed redundancies.

Management have said the staff cuts are necessary to secure the future of the two 18-hole course club.

It is understood management is looking at proposals to contract out green-keeping and other activities. It has already sold off its third golf course – Lackabane – to the adjacent Liebherr Crane factory.

However, redundancy notice was served even though a Labour Court hearing had been set for Monday, April 29th, to discuss ways of minimising job losses, Siptu organiser Denis Hynes said.

“The workers believe the aggressive behaviour of management in seeking to impose unnecessary redundancies and massive wage cuts is due to the influence of an outside consultant, who in the past was involved in a major dispute in Irish Ferries,” he said.

Meanwhile, the company has been ordered to pay a bar worker redundancy terms, agreed with her in writing last summer.

Margaret Doyle, of Aghadoe, has worked in the bar of the golf club since 1989.