SIPTU appeals to Brinks to resolve dispute

SIPTU has made an appeal to Brinks Allied to accept the terms of a Labour Court recommendation to end the three-week dispute …

SIPTU has made an appeal to Brinks Allied to accept the terms of a Labour Court recommendation to end the three-week dispute that has affected ATMS across the east coast.

Brinks security staff voted overwhelmingly at a meeting in Liberty Hall on Friday morning to accept the proposals.

However, the company rejected the terms of the deal. "The company has advised the court that its needs are specialised to ensure safety and security is at a level that affords staff the best protection available," it said in a statement. "Equally the company has to be in a position to restore customer confidence in its operations. In these special circumstances the company is unable to accept the recommendation."

SIPTU responded by calling for the immediate intervention of the National Implementation Body, which comprises senior Government, employer and union representatives.

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Banks in the affected areas say they are confident they can keep the vast majority of ATMs in operation.

Cash deliveries by Brinks security vans have been severely disrupted for the past three weeks because of the dispute, which is centred on new security procedures. Workers objected in particular to a direction from management that drivers leave the scene of an armed robbery, even if that meant abandoning a colleague.

The Labour Court, in its recommendations handed down last Thursday, said the drive-away policy should be deferred pending further evaluation over a four-week period.

SITPU security services branch secretary Mr Kevin McMahon said pickets will be placed on Brink's headquarters in Clonshaugh in Dublin tomorrow morning in the absence of a positive response from the company to today's appeal.

"The strike will proceed in the absence of the employer allowing our members to return to work in the line with the Labour Court recommendation. We have been left with no alternative," he said.

"There is now a growing concern that the company's real agenda may be to use this dispute to close its Irish business. We believe Brinks now owes its customers, its employees and the general public an explanation for why it has so resolutely rejected all the efforts of the state's industrial relations machinery to assist in finding a solution to this dispute."