SIPTU representatives support Cork members protesting outside Crowley¹s Pharmacy

SIPTU representatives are supporting a protest this afternoon
(Thursday, 7th March) by workers at Crowley’s Pharmacy, Unit 3, Mahon
Shopping Centre, Cork.
Staff have decided to protest outside the store from 2.30 p.m. to 4.30
p.m. to highlight their frustration with the management’s refusal to
negotiate with their union, SIPTU.
SIPTU Organiser, Graham Macken, said: “SIPTU is organising workers in
this pharmacy and the 59 others throughout the country which operate
within the Uniphar Retail Services Group. The company has so far
refused to recognise SIPTU for collective negotiations and has
continued to implement unilateral changes to employees’ terms and
conditions.”
He added: “The union has not balloted its members throughout the group
of pharmacies for industrial action as yet, pending the outcome of
proximity talks with management due to reconvene at the beginning of
April in regards to O’Sullivan’s Pharmacy in Bantry, Co. Cork.
“The company has continued to unilaterally implement new contracts of
employment which contain an unacceptable clause stipulating that
change can be implemented in line with business needs, which will
invariably render void any agreed terms and conditions. The company
also continues to make unlawful deductions from workers’ pay despite a
number of Rights Commissioner rulings that this is in breach of the
Payment of Wages Act. The reductions in salary have left some
employees literally on the bread line, with reductions in some cases
in the region of 27%.
“The company has also started a process of insisting that staff
re-apply for what are in effect their own jobs in an attempt to
implement the new terms by default. They are simply changing small
items in the job description in an effort to justify these so-called
new positions.”