Maintenance staff at Kerry Foods are staging a sit-in protest at the company's plant in Shillelagh, Co Wicklow following the suspenion of a colleague today.

The technican was suspended in a dispute over changes to working conditions and pay.

The maintenance staff, who are part of the TEEU trade union, claim the changes to hourly pay rates, holiday pay, bonus schemes, overtime rates and shift patterns were forced on them without consultation. As a result, they have been on a work-to-rule over the past few weeks.

Kerry Foods said the employee was suspended with pay after after refusing to implement a standard product safety procedure.

More than 20 of his colleagues have joined him in a sit-in protests at the plant’s canteen this evening.

A spokesman for Kerry Foods said the plant, which has 700 workers, was operating as normal.

“We reorganised working conditions and pay to ensure the viability of the facility. This dispute is led by TEEU which represent about 34 craft workers. We attended two sessions at the LRC (Labour Relations Commission) in the past week but unfortunateoly couldn’t reach an agreement,” he said.

He said the “vast majority” of employees at the site were part of the Siptu trade union, which had accepted the new pay and working conditions.