Workers at the Green Isle Foods plant in Co Kildare have begun industrial action this morning after several workers were sacked for alleged misconduct.
The Technical Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU) said up to 40 of its members at Green Isle and ESS, a subcontractor at the Naas plant, are involved in the action.
According to the union, seven workers were sacked after a confidential file was sent in error to a staff member. The file contained restructuring proposals, and the employee shared that information with a small number of staff some months later.
The company became aware that the file had been accessed in March, and said that a number of its own employees and those of subcontractor ESS must sign a confidentiality document confirming they had accessed the file and face suspension. The union says employees were told more severe disciplinary action would result if they failed to sign the document.
However, in a statement, Green Isle said the decision was taken to dismiss three employees following an investigation into improper use of the company's IT system.
"As a result of the intensive investigation, a number of individuals were found to have possibly breached the company's email and internet policy. In each of these cases, investigation and disciplinary meetings were held by Green Isle," it said.
"Following this, a decision was taken to dismiss three employees from the business. Each of the dismissed employees availed of the company's appeal process and after consideration of the facts in each of the three cases, the dismissal decisions were upheld." said although it had been threatened with industrial action, it had not been formally notified when it would take place and said production would continue as normal while efforts were made to reach a "reasonable and sensible conclusion".
It said less than 30 of its workers were involved in the industrial action.
The TEEU said the company, which employs over 650 people, was offered conciliation talks at the Labour Relations Commission with the union, but has hired "strike breakers" to carry out work usually performed by TEEU members.