Workers News: Bad weather leave days

 

 

Depressing to see this. Dawn Meats unwilling to pay staff for the day and a half lost during the snow earlier this month 

A Dawn Meats spokesman said: “Following the advice of the National Emergency Co-ordination Group, production was suspended across all Dawn Meats sites in Ireland from Thursday afternoon and through Friday of last week.

“In respect of this downtime – enforced by weather events outside our control – team members have access to normal annual leave arrangements and scope to work additional hours as we replenish supplies for our customers in the coming days and weeks. These arrangements are in line with norms in the food-processing sector.”

Apparently not – according to Siptu organiser Michael Browne.

I’ve heard this sort of stuff before. Some companies force employees to take holiday days when they are ill. That this can hardly increase morale appears to worry them not at all.

And fear not for Arrow Group, owner of Dawn Meats for as the Independent notes:

 

Pre-tax profits at the Arrow Group, one of the largest meat processors in the country, last year increased by 53pc to €37.73m.

New accounts show that the Co Waterford-based group achieved the sharp increase in pre-tax profits in spite of revenues dipping by 2.4pc from €511.65m to €499m in the 12 months to January 1 this year.

The group achieved the sharp rise in profits after the business’s administrative expenses reduced by 48.5pc from €51.25m to €26.35m.

They’re clearly not going to starve. Good to see a union standing up for its members. Less good to see a company so indifferent to the welfare of its workers.

And interesting to see this spread more widely.  No surprise that ISME are pleading inability to pay… 

However, the small business lobby group, ISME warned that many businesses simply could not afford to pay staff when they had lost revenue due to closures.

ISME Chief Executive Neil McDonnell said hundreds of millions of euro worth of trade had been lost during Storm Emma and a lot of small and medium enterprises who had lost turnover would have difficulty paying staff and traders before the end of March.

He also warned that legislation would not resolve the matter as new laws would not address where there was simply no money to pay.