As featured in the Journal.ie, the Greyhound Recycling Group says it welcomes the decision by Minister of State, Ged Nash, to seek the introduction of legally binding pay rates for workers across the waste industry. Greyhound says it has been seeking an initiative like this for some time. The company is also defending its pay rates, saying that the “Greyhound collection crews are the best paid bin collectors in Europe. Greyhound pay rates are 60% above the industry average” and that even after the proposed reduction, they will still be 10% above the average. Greyhound says it must be allowed to compete with other waste companies and binding pay rates across the industry would allow it to achieve this.
Such a move will see a minimum level of wage rates across the industry and so the ability for cheaper firms to undercut based on pricing will be reduced. It was these such concerns that saw the introduction of the REAs for the Construction industry which were spearheaded by the larger construction firms (who could afford to pay the rates) in an effort to ensure the smaller firms would not be able to undercut them on pricing. the REAs established minimum rates of pay and conditions for workers and were backed by unions, however this put a major financial struggle on small to medium sized employers.
SIPTU workers at Greyhound have been protesting about the cuts since June 17. Last week, the High Court ordered a TD and two councillors to stop blockading Greyhound bin trucks in Dublin. The union representing the Greyhound workers said it will continue to hold peaceful pickets at the company’s depots in Dublin 22 and Dublin 12.
