SIPTU AND management of Dublin’s Gresham Hotel were locked in talks last night aimed at averting industrial action which the union has threatened to carry out this weekend.
The groups were meeting at the Labour Relations Commission in an attempt to resolve the dispute which is based on redundancies and the severance payments. Siptu branch organiser Paul Henry said the groups were “still locked” in negotiations last night and that he expected the talks to continue today.
The union said on Tuesday that if an agreement was not reached industrial action, which could take any form, could begin any time from Saturday morning onwards.
Mr Henry said hotel management has refused to stop the practice of designating trainee managers to carry out work ordinarily done by regular employees.
He said the hotel had laid off 15 full-time workers and put another 15 on short time working because of the economic downturn. Mr Henry said that, rather than attempting to renegotiate a return to work for these people through restructuring, management had tried to force through redundancies paying statutory entitlements. Strike action could create difficulties for the Gresham, which is located on O’Connell Street, with the All-Ireland football final between Cork and Kerry taking place in nearby Croke Park on Sunday afternoon. A spokeswoman for the Gresham Hotel Group said it does not comment on staff relations.
