by Cliona Connolly

WORKERS at the Clones AIBP meat plant are being discriminated against amidst “a huge fear factor” at the factory the UNITE Food Workers Union has claimed.

Claims of widespread bullying, unfair dismissal, threats and intimidation have been alleged by union representatives to The Monaghan Post following a protest held outside the Larry Goodman owned processing plant on Friday last, 8 February.

Local man and Secretary of the Co Monaghan Council of Trades Union Peter McAleer told the Post that employees leaving the factory during the protest told him they had been threatened on leaving that “if they took part in the protest, there would be no job for them on Monday”.

Inga Sedotva of UNITE said the issue began with the opening of the boning hall last August in which mostly non-national people work. “Staff are working overtime but have never been paid for it. They have not been given a contract in their own language and therefore they don’t know what they are entitled to.”

Ms Sedotva has also alleged widespread bullying of employees in AIBP. “Five people were dismissed last week because they had been sick. One man, who suffers from epilepsy, had an attack and was taken from work in an ambulance. When he returned two days later having recovered, the Manager would not even look at his doctor’s note but dismissed him immediately.”

The union also claims that many workers had their passports taken in order to process work permits but had been waiting too long for their return. “These people are not being treated like human beings. There is a huge fear factor in AIBP. When you are treated like a third class employee you start to feel like one,” Ms Sedotva said.

“This protest is just the beginning. They must stop this treatment. We are going to contact  their customers such as ASDA if this is not resolved. We are fighting for human rights,” Ms Sedotva warned. The union will be raising these concerns with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and the Ethical Trading Initiative next week.

Jim Quinn, Team Leader with UNITE said: “Larry Goodman and AIBP have been stung by a highly affective campaign which our union has been running throughout the country with red meat workers both local and migrant. That campaign has highlighted a situation where workers doing exactly the same job in Goodman plants in Newry, Lurgan and Clones are being paid different rates of pay.”

A spokesperson for AIBP said: “AIBP disputes the validity of the protest at its plant in Clones. The company notes that the majority of people on the protest were not and never have been employees of AIBP.  The company categorically refutes any suggestion of exploitation of any employee on the basis of nationality or any other basis. AIBP is committed to all its employees, its farmer suppliers and to the locality.”

AIBP invested up to €10 million in the Clones plant in 2007.  The factory currently employs 185 in this facility and aims to create a further 80 new jobs in the coming year.