Irish union SIPTU general president Jack O’Connor has expressed concern overplans by Gate Gourmet, Dublin, to carry out profiling of individual workers to ascertain who will be most likely to resist changes.
O’Connor described a leaked Gate Gourmet document outlining this practice as ‘sinister, provocative and reprehensible’.
Meanwhile, Brian Murnane, the general manager of Gate Gourmet’s Dublin operation, has written to Siptu, saying that after over a month of consultation, the company had decided to implement its reorganisation plans.
Murnane says that, apart from a few cases, the company intends to require employees to vary the manner in which they carry out their work within their current employment contracts, and has informed them of this limited requirement.
The letter stresses that this change is covered by a term in an agreement between the company and SIPTU which provides that ‘employees may be changed from one duty to another and from one location to another at the discretion of the company’.
Gate Gourmet claims that it will not be changing its workers’ terms and conditions of employment.
Murnane confirmed to journalists that Gate Gourmet is proceeding with the immediate reorganisation of its workforce including instructing certain staff members to change their work practices.
