Conflicting information to Dyno Rod staff leaves workers fearing their jobs are set to go down the drain

Belfast Drain Clearing Services Ltd tell workers they will transferred to Irish Waste Services Ltd from Monday morning but Irish Waste Services Ltd deny any plans to take on Dyno Rod contracts or workers

October 5th: Unite Regional Officer Michael Keenan, expressed his concern for his union’s members after their employer told them that their contracts had been transferred to another company from this Monday only for the latter to deny any knowledge of the fact.

“The workers, of whom the overwhelming majority are members of Unite, have been left in limbo in the midst of this chaos.

“Belfast Drain Clearing Services (BDCS) Ltd, trading as Dyno Rod (NI), employs 18 workers providing services to Dyno Rod Ltd (Dino) in Northern Ireland. In a letter from BDCS management dated October 2^nd, workers were told that as the new service provider for Dyno Rod is Irish Waste Services they should present themselves for work first thing on Monday morning to this employer where all their jobs, pay and terms & conditions would be maintained. “Unfortunately when Unite contacted Irish Waste Services Ltd, they denied any knowledge of events and told us that they had not taken any Dyno-Rod contracts and certainly would not be employing any BDCS workers.

“This leaves the workers in limbo with great concern as to their employment status after the close of business tomorrow [Friday, October 6^th]. We are advising that they present themselves to BDCS for employment on Monday given the uncertainty.

“Unite is calling on management from both companies to engage with us in a joint meeting to clarify responsibilities. If work has passed from BDCS to Irish Waste then the responsibility for workers transfers to the latter under TUPE legislation. If not, then BDCS needs to provide an explanation to the workers and to confirm whether they face a redundancy situation.

“Unite has already initiated preparatory work with our legal team to defend the workers’ basic entitlements. Management need to get it together and show responsibility to these workers”, Mr Keenan finished.

ENDS…

For further information or to arrange an interview contact Michael Keenan, Regional Officer, Unite, tel. 07795 195687 or Donal O’Cofaigh, Unite Campaigns & Communications NI, tel. 07810 157926.