A TWO year battle has ended in victory for a group of Limerick workers with the news that they will get the €80,000 redundancy money that the Labour court ruled they were entitled to.
Eight unionised staff at St Enda’s Sports Complex were awarded the money two years ago when they were made redundant from the sports complex, which is attached to St Enda’s Community School in Southill.
The complex was funded by the Department of Education and a total of 28 people lost their jobs when funding was cut. In September, eight SIPTU members started a daily picket of the school and complex.
Now Public Expenditure MInister, Brendan Howlin, has written to local TD’s involved in getting payment for the workers to say that as it is a “unique situation”, the decision has finally been made to write the cheque for the redundancy payments.
“It has been a very hard road for us but we’re over the line now,” said Ray Healy, spokesperson for the for St. Enda’s workers.
“We want to thank our union,the media and the TD’s who helped us. It’s not a lot of money when you’ve lost your jobs but it’s the principle. What’s the point in having a Labour Court if you’re not going to honour what that court decides?”
Deputy Kieran O’Donnell (FG) said he is “delighted. They fought a hard battle and I want to congratulate them and their families. They’ve shown great courage”.
Deputy Willie O’Dea (FF) said that payment was promised last March “yet nothing happened. The workers had to resort to protesting in hail and rain for the last number of months for the Government to finally pay the money they were rightfully owed.”
Deputy Jan O’Sullivan (Lab) said she is “very pleased that they will be paid. It has been a long road involving a lot of meetings and negotiations”.
Above: St.Enda’s sports complex.
