SIPTU members who worked at Rehab Enterprises in, Raheen, county Limerick, have expressed their deep frustration at the delay by the Rehab Group in implementing a Labour Court recommendation that they should be paid outstanding redundancy payments. The Court recommended several weeks ago that the collective agreement between SIPTU members and Rehab Enterprises should be honoured by its parent company, the Rehab Group. Thirty-eight workers lost their jobs at Rehab Enterprises in 2021 but were denied their collectively agreed redundancy payments. On 25th November last, the workers were informed by letter that the boards of Rehab Enterprises, which employed them, and the Rehab Group, the parent company are due to meet to consider the Labour Court recommendation. “The recommendation and its implications are currently under consideration by the relevant boards,” the company said in the letter to SIPTU Organiser, Robbie Purfield. “Our members are now some 20 months without their collectively agreed redundancy payments and are deeply frustrated by the continued delay by the Rehab Group in honouring the Labour Court recommendation that it should pay what they are owed. This should be done urgently.” Robbie Purfield said. “We are particularly concerned that a body in receipt of State funds appears to be delaying implementing a recommendation from another State body. “We have been in contact with politicians across all parties who support the position of our members. We are also considering further actions we may take if the Rehab Group continues to delay in honouring the Labour Court recommendation,” he said. The SIPTU members were made redundant by Rehab Enterprises in early 2021 when it closed its logistics centre in Raheen, county Limerick. The company contended that it could not afford to pay the agreed redundancy terms of six weeks’ pay per year of service. Instead of honouring this agreement, it paid the workers only their statutory redundancy entitlements plus two weeks’ pay per year of service capped at one year’s salary.
SIPTU calls on Rehab Group to urgently pay redundancy owed to Limerick workers
