Labour Court recommends 44 maintenance technicians at Mondelez’s Coolock plant

The Labour Court recommended merging Mondelez’s fitter and electrician grades at its Coolock plant into a Maintenance Technician grade, with a target workforce of 44. The recommendation, signed on 17 February 2016, said voluntary redundancies should be used to reach that number, and transferring staff should keep their current terms and conditions. The dispute concerned the cost of electrical and mechanical maintenance. The Technical, Engineering and Electrical Union and Unite supported keeping core maintenance work directly employed; Mondelez had proposed restructuring the work after considering outsourcing it. The Court recommended that the unions accept management’s proposals on shift and plant alignment, and that existing compensation arrangements apply to staff who lose earnings because of shift changes. It also recommended a two-year cap on the tool allowance and continued operation of the 2007 agreement on contractors, with a review after the new grade had operated for 12 months.