STAFF AT the mobile phone company O2 have voted in favour of industrial action as part of a row over trade union recognition.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) said O2 was refusing to recognise the union for collective bargaining purposes although it did represent individual staff in grievance and disciplinary proceedings.
CWU head of organising and regulatory affairs Ian McArdle said the union had engaged with the company over the last year in a change process but that afterwards it had been cast adrift.
He said the company in Ireland was also failing to live within a global agreement reached by the Telefonica group, which acquired 02 in 2006, to recognise unions and safeguard labour rights.
O2 chief executive Danuta Gray said: "I don't believe a collective bargaining process is what the majority of people in O2 want or expect and while I regret the fact that the company received notice of industrial action, a collective bargaining approach is not acceptable to us."