Staff brought from Spain to Dublin plant are not replacing strikers, company says

Staff brought from Spain to a waste-water treatment plant in Co Dublin, where a Siptu strike is under way, have not been brought in to replace strikers, management at the plant said yesterday.

Siptu has claimed two men brought in by SDD Shanganagh Water Treatment Ltd, which runs the Shanganagh Waste Water Treatment Plant, were “strike-breakers” and their introduction was “a major escalation” of the industrial dispute between the company and its workers.

A spokesman for the company said the two were “management personnel” with “relevant technical expertise” who had been brought in to assist in ensuring “the plant is operating satisfactorily”.

The plant treats water for domestic and commercial purposes for 248,000 people in Dublin and Wicklow. It is run by SDD, a joint venture between John Sisk & Son and Spanish companies Dragados and Drace Medio-Ambiente, under a contract with plant owner Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

The strike began earlier this week after the 12 Siptu general operatives voted unanimously for industrial action on April 25th. The vote followed the company's refusal to refer a dispute relating to pay and shift premium payments to the Labour Court, the union said, although some issues of dispute had been resolved at the Labour Relations Commission.

Siptu sector organiser Martin Meere said the use of “strike breakers” would “deeply concern workers across the country” and was in line with the company’s past treatment of workers. He refuted the claim that the Spanish staff were management. “They are doing our lads’ work; we can see them from the picket line.”

An SDD spokesman said the situation was being kept “under review” and the “sole objective” was “to ensure that this essential public service continues to function efficiently and safely”. He added: “We would again urge the workers who are taking industrial action to engage with us through the State’s established industrial relations machinery.”