Irish refuse collection company Greyhound is claiming that agency workers brought in to work during the current dispute are +25% more productive than the regular collection staff, reports thejournal.ie.

The claim comes as SIPTU (Services Industrial Professional and Technical Union) repeats claims that Greyhound staff have been ‘locked out’ of their jobs for the past three weeks after they were told they must accept pay cuts of up to -35%.

Greyhound, however, has rejected their claims, adding in a statement that agency staff brought in during the dispute have been more efficient: “Greyhound also rejects comments made by [SIPTU] about the use of agency crews. Maintaining continuity of service for our customers has been foremost in our minds over the past three weeks. The fact is that productivity has increased by +25% through the deployment of agency staff, with routes being completed on time, every time.”

Greyhound claim that the staff were not ‘locked out’ but refused to work after they rejected a Labour Court recommendation that pay should be reduced to bring it in line with industry standards.

SIPTU President Jack O’Connor stated that there was a Labour Court recommendation, but it did not relate to pay: “The Labour Court made a recommendation… but it did not make a recommendation on pay cuts, it made recommendations on productivity.”

“The company, without going back to the court, moved pre-emptively on 17 June to put a gun to the head of our workers to tell them that unless they were prepared to accept a -35% cut in their pay that they wouldn’t allow them to work, that’s a lock-out,” he added.

Mr O’Connor also rejected claims from Greyhound that the agency staff were performing better than the collection staff: “One has to be suspicious. Without being too direct about it, the company chose to lock-out our workers and replace them with agency workers instead of going back to the Labour Court as part of the collective agreement that is in place.”

Unlike much of Europe, there are no specific procedures governing the use of temporary workers to replace workers on strike in Ireland. For further information on the Irish market, click here.