Siptu staff look elsewhere for someone to fight their corner

SIPTU staff appear to have little faith in their own internal union’s ability to represent them in disputes with Liberty Hall management,

Ergo has learned.

The staff representative council (SRC), a special internal representative body that effectively acts as a trade union for Siptu staff, issued a memo to them in recent days.

“Many staff members feel that the current industrial relations structures within the union are not conducive to delivering reasonable outcomes and many feel that staff should join, and be represented by, another union,” it said.

The SRC said that it had no opinion on which, if any, other union should be engaged but said it would seek feedback from members.

In the meantime, it has, in conjunction with the union’s Siptu College education arm, arranged to develop a training needs analysis relevant to its requirements. The three-day training course is to focus on negotiation skills, grievance handling, communication skills, team-building and conflict resolution.

The concerns come after the SRC found itself embroiled in a row, previously reported on by this newspaper, between Siptu and a group of part-time staff who are demanding retrospective payment of up to 10 years’ worth of Christmas bonuses. A senior SRC representative had written in an email to senior Siptu management that “trust and confidence has been shattered” by the issue. A proposal to back-date the bonus by one year had not gone down well, according to sources.

The proposed three-day training course may well be a worthwhile investment, it seems.