Call centre company Abtran has illegally fired a worker in Cork who was a vocal supporter of the ongoing unionisation effort. This comes after months of campaigning by members of the Independent Workers’ Union to obtain better pay and conditions in Abtran. In May workers delivered a pay claim to the company demanding, among other things, a pay increase to €15/hr with a pay scale to reward years of service.
The worker in question was a union activist who accompanied co-workers to disciplinaries, encouraged them to join the union and took part in industrial action. The ostensible reason for the firing was ‘breaching the electronic communications policy’, which the worker did by posting a gif in a group chat and putting a laugh emoji on an anti-union email from the COO. These are clearly just a pretence to get rid of a union activist and send a warning to other Abtran workers thinking about unionising.
The right to join a trade union is constitutionally protected and the worker’s firing is a clear violation of the law. This matters little to Abtran, who have made the calculation that potentially paying a penalty for an unlawful dismissal is better than having a strong union presence in their company.
This is not the first time Abtran has used intimidation to deter their employees from unionising. Another union activist was fired in October last year. In August one team leader in Abtran bragged on Reddit about how he would bully any members of his team who joined a trade union.
This is just one example of how employment law often matters little to employers. ICTU unions have largely moved away from militant organising and have taken on the role of lobbyists who beg the government for changes to employment law. If employers often do not respect said laws in the first place then such an approach is clearly flawed. Without militant trade union organisation, workers have no means to defend their rights for themselves.
If the trade union movement hopes to be relevant for young workers, who are overwhelmingly non-unionised, then the type of militant organising adopted by the Independent Workers’ Union is the only way forward. The Connolly Youth Movement stands firmly behind the Abtran workers in their efforts to secure fair pay and conditions in the face of company intimidation.