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SIPTU Campaigning Against Offaly Medical Plant's Union Policy

Friday, 23 May 2025 14:24

Steris AST Tullamore - photo credit: Google/Emma Harry

Workers at the plant are calling for the right to collective representation.

Workers at a medical device plant in Offaly are campaigning for the right to collective representation.

SIPTU members at Steris Applied Sterilization Technologies in Tullamore are calling on the plant for union recognition.

The plant currently allows it at the Westport plant, but not for employees in Offaly.

The workers have made a submission to the public consultation process on Ireland's forthcoming action plan to promote collective bargaining.

The State is obliged by the EU to publish a plan if less than 80% of employees in the country are covered by collective representation.

The figure is currently estimated to be under 35%.

SIPTU says:

“Collective bargaining, which is the process whereby workers negotiate with their employer as a group, has been fought for by our members employed in Steris AST for many years. Our members secured a Labour Court Recommendation in June 2018 which stated that, ‘the Employer should recognise the Union as the Representative of those employees who are in membership of the Union and should engage with it in dealing with employment related matters arising within the employment affecting those members’.”

“However, the company has ignored this recommendation and even though they engage collectively with SIPTU at their Westport plant.”

SIPTU Manufacturing Divisional Organiser Neil McGowan says his members deserve recognition:

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