Unite demands confirmation that Authentic Food Company workers in Dundalk will receive benefit payments this week

Trade union Unite, which represents workers at the Authentic Food Company plant in Dundalk, today demanded that Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty issue a categorical statement assuring workers that they will receive their Social Protection entitlements on Friday. 

Unite’s Senior Officer in the Republic, Brendan Ogle, made the call following Minister of State John Paul Phelan’s failure in the Seanad today to state unambiguously that workers will receive the payments to which they are entitled.
 
“Many of our members have over 25 years’ service with the Authentic Food Company and its predecessor Heinz, yet today they find themselves wondering how to pay the rent. 

"According to the liquidators, there is no money to pay our members’ wages during the 30-day ‘consultation period’ which commenced last Friday, or for the subsequent two-week notice period, leaving them without any income for six weeks and without a P45. 
 
“Our members have paid their taxes and social insurance.  Having been left high and dry not only by their employer, but by the state’s persistent failure to legislate for such cases, they are entitled to know that the Department of Social Protection will step in and pay them their social welfare entitlements on Friday.
 
“I am calling on Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty to issue a categorical statement to that effect, and to issue the necessary instructions to her officials”, Mr Ogle concluded.