Reps challenge regional VFI redundancies

THE VINTNERS Federation of Ireland had to make all its regional representatives redundant because of the closure of 1,400 rural pubs over the last four years, a tribunal has been told.

The former chief executive of the federation Tadgh O'Sullivan told the Employment Appeals Tribunal yesterday that its membership had shown "a constant haemorrhage" from 6,200 pubs in 2004 to 4,800 today.

He said it was "unsustainable" and not cost-effective to continue employing five regional representatives at an annual cost of €284,000 when their principal function was to recruit new members for the federation and at a time when membership levels were declining so dramatically.

The role of recruiting new members was given to agencies on a freelance basis following the redundancies.

He said the cost of the regional representatives was proving too much when the organisation was depending on the subscriptions of a declining membership for its revenue. The decision to make the regional representatives redundant was crystalised when he saw the accounts for the end of 2006, which left him "scared".

The Vintners Federation has a turnover of between €1 million and €1.5 million a year.

Rural pubs have been hit in recent years by the smoking ban, random breath-testing and a general drift towards off-licence sales.

Two of the former regional representatives, Liam Sheehan (64) Main Street, Cappaghwhite, Co Waterford, and John O'Brien (58), Highlands Creagh, Gorey, Co Wexford, are suing the federation for unfair dismissal.

They claim they were unfairly dismissed because no attempt was made to help them save their jobs. They also allege that no attempt was made to offer them the role of organisation development officer which carries out many of the functions which were originally carried out by the regional officer.

They also allege that their dismissal, which was made by the federation's national executive council in April last year, was against the federation's constitution because it was not authorised to make such a decision.

Mr O'Brien also alleged that he had been bullied by Mr O'Sullivan, who retired as chief executive of the Vintners Federation at the end of last year.

Mr O'Sullivan denied an allegation from the counsel for the two men, Stephen O'Sullivan, that he had used the issue of expenses to make life uncomfortable for Mr O'Brien.

Mr O'Sullivan said that Mr O'Brien's mileage claims had been "outrageous" though he later said they were "unsustainable" and he had raised the issue with him several times in the past.

Mr O'Sullivan said he was more "sad than angry and very disappointed" by the allegation of bullying which, he said, had never been substantiated by Mr O'Brien, despite several requests from his solicitors. He said that in his 25 years in the federation, he had run a "friendly ship" and had an "easy atmosphere" in the office.

Mr O'Sullivan said the issue of the redundancies first surfaced at a meeting in June 2006 between himself, federation president Paul Stevenson and four of the regional representatives, and had been raised by Mr Sheehan.

He said Mr Stevenson had spoken of standardising and rationalising the work of the regional representatives and there had been a frank exchange of views between all parties. "It was not a pussy-cat meeting and there was clear statements made by both sides," he said.

Stephen O'Sullivan suggested that Mr Sheehan had only raised the issue of redundancy because Mr Stevenson had been "very aggressive" and the tone of the meeting suggested they were going to be ousted.

The case resumes on June 13th.