Deputy John O'Leary has been given permission to raise on the Adjournment the subject matter of a Private Notice Question today. Deputy O'Leary will have to read his Private Notice Question if he has it.
Adjournment Debate. - Killarney Shoe Factory Strike.
I gave notice of my intention to ask a Private Notice Question, namely, to ask the Minister for Labour if he will personally intervene as a matter of extreme urgency to settle the strike at Tuf Shoes factory in Killarney, County Kerry, in view of the proposals to wind down operations in the factory as from tomorrow, Wednesday, 26 June 1985 and the serious danger of the loss of 100 jobs; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
I thank the Ceann Comhairle for giving me permission to raise this matter on the Adjournment of the Dáil tonight. First of all, this strike has been on since 7 June and I understand that there has been no direct intervention by the Minister so far. I understand also that a meeting has been arranged between the management and the union for Thursday but my latest information tonight is that the management will just inform the union again that they intend to stick to their decision.
The history of this industry is most interesting. This industry was started by people making handmade shoes in 1881. In 1936 the present premises were built and occupied by a firm known as Hilliard and Palmer who were most successful in the manufacture of footwear. In 1963-64 this company was taken over by G.B. Britten and operated under G.B. Britten for a few years. Then a company known as Tuf Shoes, Killarney, was formed and the company has been trading since then as Tuf Shoes, Killarney. I understand that this industry reached its peak in the late sixties and the seventies.
Over the past three or four years persons who left or retired were not replaced due to what is termed natural wastage. It is well known that employees in the clothing and footwear industries are not paid as well as employees in other manufacturing industries and this must be taken very much into account when considering the situation which now prevails in the Tuf Shoes factory in Killarney. We must also bear in mind the fact that all the employees of the company have given loyal and faithful service to the company. Very few firms and manufacturing companies in this country have had such a loyal and faithful staff as have Tuf Shoes, Killarney, and their predecessors in the running of this enterprise. Tuf Shoes, Killarney, supplied the Army and the prison service with boots, shoes and footwear for a long number of years. They also supplied the Department of Posts and Telegraphs and the ESB for many years.
The company proposed some time ago to make 25 to 30 employees redundant on the grounds that it is the intention of the company to rationalise operations in the plant. The kernel of the problem is the rate of redundancy to be paid to those being made redundant. I understand that the company decided to pay more or less according to the Act which would entail half a week's pay for every year of service plus a week's pay. I understand also that this was discussed by the Labour Court and also by the Conciliation and Arbitration Board but the employees are not happy about the method by which the assessment and the award were made by the Labour Court and by the Conciliation and Arbitration Board.
Management say that the whole purpose of the rationalisation programme is to hold on to the 95 jobs. Very few are disputing this. The kernel of the problem is the rate of redundancy which the company propose to pay to their employees. Common sense must prevail and there is an obligation on the Minister to intervene personally in this case. One of the major functions of the Minister for Labour and his Department is to monitor disputes, particularly disputes leading to a strike and the possibility of ultimate closure of an industrial enterprise. In this case we are talking about an industry which is perhaps the oldest in Killarney, if not in all County Kerry.
Killarney has suffered much from unemployment in recent years and the rate of emigration, particularly among young people, has been alarmingly high during the past year. Employees are anxious to know whether the Labour Court when assessing the situation took into account the company's profits in recent years. I appeal to the Minister to intervene immediately, to call both sides together to settle the dispute and save the 95 jobs.
I can readily understand Deputy O'Leary's concern in raising this matter since it affects his constituency. He and the other Deputies in the constituency of South Kerry are legitimately concerned. I wish to restate the responsibilities of the Minister for Labour in the area of industrial relations. The role of the Minister for Labour is to ensure that there is an adequate and effective system of industrial relations machinery available to both sides within the operation of our open, democratic system to enable them to resolve whatever differences arise in a manner which results in the minimum disruption in terms of industrial stoppages.
As a corollary to that, I do not believe it is the responsibility of the Minister to intervene directly in individual disputes unless there are overriding reasons of a nationwide dimension that would warrant it. My immediate predecessor, Deputy Liam Kavanagh, was very strongly of this view and established a position which has strengthened the entire industrial relations machinery. If participants on either side felt that they could have a fast track to the Minister for Labour of the day they would disregard all the intermediate stages in the industrial relations field and would not avail of the professional machinery that exists to enable them to resolve their disputes.
I am not a professional industrial relations specialist, nor have been most of my predecessors. There are, however, in the Labour Court, the trade union movement and the employers' organisations people whose skill it is to assist in the resolution of such disputes and who have given their life to such work. It is our responsibility as a Legislature and my responsibility as Minister for Labour to ensure that the skilled people in the area are given the support of our system of enable them to bring about a resolution of a conflict wherever it arises in the industrial relations scheme. I believe this is the correct position for the Minister and the Department of Labour.
This dispute essentially concerns the 24th pay round and the terms of a redundancy programme proposed by the management. Following conciliation conferences the Labour Court investigated both issues. As the House knows, the Labour Court is a body representing the social partners and independent members and has won the trust and respect of both sides of industry over many years. Indeed, the Labour Court is literally as old as myself, established in the year of my birth. It has a whole body of case law and precedent. In this case the recommendation of the Labour Court was firstly, that the company's offer of a 3 per cent wage increase for six months, followed by a review after implementation of a rationalisation programme, should be accepted by the workforce; secondly, workers made redundant under the rationalisation programme should receive their statutory entitlements only. This is the nub of the issue.
The workers represented by the Irish Transport and General Workers Union rejected both the Labour Court recommendations and strike action started on 6 June last. It is understood that the company improved on the terms recommended by the Labour Court but that this improvement was not acceptable to the union. The company have indicated that no further improvement is possible and that they propose to wind down operations if there is not a return to work by Wednesday, 26 June.
My Department were aware of this problem. We have a monitoring group which was established by Deputy O'Leary's namesake when Minister for Labour. The monitoring group have been in contact with the Labour Court, who have arranged for an industrial relations officer to convene another conciliation conference on Thursday in Mallow. Both sides have indicated that they will attend the conference. I would support that meeting and publicly request the company to defer any action which they were proposing for tomorrow until such time as the outcome of the meeting with the IRO is known. I do not see that I can do anything more which would be helpful to the interests of the workers in the Tuf factory in Killarney. It is for their union representatives to negotiate an improved settlement if that is possible and for the company to respond as best they can.
The position is, quite clearly, that the industrial relations which exist have been brought into play and made available to both sides. As Deputy O'Leary said, there is a history related to this factory and we know that the shoe industry has gone through a certain amount of restructuring and market change. I urge both sides to approach the conciliation conference in Mallow on Thursday in a spirit of constructive compromise, with a view to finding a satisfactory solution to this problem. that is all that I can do and I ask everybody to refrain from making any further comment on the dispute at this stage so that the outcome of the conciliation conference will not be prejudiced.
Would the Minister ask his Department to keep the situation under continuous examination?
The Deputy may take it that following his raising of the matter we will pay particular attention to it and keep it under review.
The Dáil adjourned at 11.03 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 26 June 1985.