Staff at British embassy to ballot on strike

The British embassy in Dublin is facing possible strike action after union members began a ballot for industrial action yesterday.

The trade union Unite said three staff members at the embassy had been advised by British ambassador David Reddaway on Friday that they would be receiving compulsory redundancy notices this week.

The staff concerned are locally recruited managers dealing with UK trade and investment matters in Ireland.

At a union meeting yesterday, members of staff voted unanimously to begin a ballot for industrial action. Speaking afterwards, Unite regional officer Colm Quinlan said he had "no doubt whatsoever" that members would vote in favour.

"There was a lot of upset and anger at the meeting, and I was unanimously instructed to condemn the embassy for disregarding our procedures, to formally state our opposition to compulsory redundancy and to commence a ballot for industrial action," he said.

Unite, which represents 45 staff members at the embassy, said that Dublin was the only British embassy worldwide that recognised trade union membership and that there had been a positive and agreed set of procedures in place since 2003 for dealing with disputes.

However, those procedures had been disregarded by the embassy when three members of staff were warned last Friday that they would be made redundant, according to the union. "The ambassador and his staff have shown complete disregard for the Irish Labour Relations Commission, through which this should have been negotiated," Mr Quinlan said.

He added that, should members opt for industrial action, the union would be "imaginative and creative" about how to use that mandate.

"We'll use it to exert maximum pressure on British embassy management to come back into procedures, to take the redundancies off the table and to negotiate outcomes in line with the agreements that we thought were in place," he said.

The result of the vote is expected next week.

In a statement, the British embassy said: "We are disappointed to hear that staff have voted to ballot for strike action. No redundancy notices have been issued to staff and we believe that any strike would be unnecessary and regrettable. We have followed established consultation procedures throughout and will continue to operate in full compliance with Irish labour law."

The embassy said the decision to reduce the size of Dublin's trade and investment section was made in London by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) in line with their strategy to "transfer resources to a number of key emerging markets".

"UKTI staff have been kept briefed throughout and have known since last October that job cuts at senior level were possible. If redundancies do prove necessary, the package we offer will fully meet the requirements of Irish labour law," the statement said.

Deputy head of mission Andy Heyn told The Irish Timesthere was no direct connection between the job cuts and a reduced workload due to political developments in Northern Ireland.

Mr Heyn, who is also head of trade and investment at the embassy, said UKTI had observed that companies required more assistance from British embassies in emerging markets such as India, Brazil and China, and that many British embassies on the Continent had already had their trade and investment divisions reduced.

Some embassies were currently going through second and third rounds of job cuts, whereas these were the first to affect Dublin.

He added that while trade between Ireland and Britain was increasing, the embassy was not seeing increased demands for its involvement as a result.

The embassy stressed that it would remain open for business whether or not the strike went ahead.