Workers Party Dublin Central candidate Cllr. Éilis Ryan has expressed support for the 580 Xtravision workers who have been made redundant and are now fighting for entitlements they were promised would be secured.
Cllr. Ryan said that more than four years after the Vita Cortex debacle in Cork in which employees had to sit-in their factory for more than four months to get their basic entitlements and the equally disgraceful treatment of Clery’s workers, another company is now walking away from staff who have given it many years of loyal hard work and commitment.
She said, “Where is the legislation that was promised to ensure that workers would never again be left in the lurch with the taxpayers having to carry the can for wealthy employers? How quickly government ministers who rushed to the scene for the cameras have forgotten their words. Workers were told that ‘never again’ would they have to barricade themselves and sit in the cold to gain their rights. “
The Workers’ Party councillor said that workers at Xtravision now find themselves in exactly the same position as those in Vita Cortex, Clery’s, Waterford Glass and any number of companies where employers have thrown them on the scrapheap.
“Fairness was the watchword of the Labour Party in the last general election but it has been in very short supply for workers in companies like Xtravision and the others. It is completely unacceptable that any employer can just walk away from workers while continuing to hold significant assets. Every time it is the taxpayers who end up paying while workers have to wait for months and sometimes years to find out how much, if any, of their entitlements they will receive”, said Cllr. Ryan.