Diageo has been told to give new staff at St James's Gate better pay
Unions wanted new starters in the company’s craft grades to get better conditions.
GUINNESS-MAKER DIAGEO has been told by the Labour Court to provide better pay to new craft workers at its St James’s Gate facility.
The British drinks giant has been locked in a dispute with the Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union (TEEU), which said that it wanted improved terms for new starters in Diageo’s craft grades.
There are about 30 employees in the crafts grades at St James’s Gate in Dublin. Diageo employs more than 700 full-time employees at St James’s Gate in a multitude of areas, including brewing, engineering, sales, marketing and retail.
In 2010 both Diageo and the TEEU made an agreement to introduce revised pay rates for new employees.
Since then there have been discussions between the two aimed at agreeing the terms of the new rates, without success.
The TEEU said that “the reduced level of pay the company is proposing is excessive in the extreme”.
Pay offer
It said that, were it to accept the company’s offer, the pay level for new entrants “would be significantly below that which applies in the contract electrical industry as a whole”.
A file pic of St James' Gate
The union said it is prepared to consider a revised pay rate for new starters, “it is not prepared to agree the additional reductions in other employment conditions including pensions, bonuses and total annual hours worked”.
For its part, Diageo told the Labour Court that it was proposing “a very-attractive package” for the craft grade workers “that will attract significant interest from amongst union members in other employments”.
It said that the package it was proposing “is in line with those accepted by other grades in the company”.
Recommendation
In its recommendation, the Labour Court said that the basic rate of pay offered by the company to workers in the craft grades should be increased from €44,650 to €47,342.
“The court notes that this adjust will narrow the gap considerably between the current basic rate of pay for this category of staff and that proposed by the company,” it said.
Fora contacted the TEEU to ask for more detail on the talks with Diageo, however the union had not responded at the time of publication.
A spokeswoman for Diageo said: “We have received the Labour Court recommendations and all parties are actively considering it.”
Asked if new entrants for any other worker grades have recently received pay increases, the spokeswoman said: “All employees at St James’s Gate, including new entrants, received agreed pay increases last year.”
St James’ Gate
Diageo has been keen to expand its operations at St James’s Gate. The Guinness Storehouse has consistently been Ireland’s most popular tourist attraction, pulling in 1.5 million visitors in 2015.
In 2014 Diageo opened a massive new state-of-the-art brewery at St James’s Gate, which consolidated all of the company’s brewing in Ireland. It was estimated to cost €169 million.
The new brewery opened in 2014
At the start of the year Diageo also announced plans to launch a whiskey brand, Roe & Co, which will be brewed at St James’s Gate.
The company is refitting its old power plant, the former Guinness Power House on James’s Street, as part of the move.
The facility will be focused on producing the new whiskey. The distillery is expected to take three years to build and cost €25 million.
