J Murphy & Sons has agreed a compensation settlement with four sacked workers after a long-running dispute.
Employees, fitters and welders working on a renovation project at Ireland’s giant Rusal Aughinish Alumina refinery were fired in 2022 after a meeting at the plant to discuss non-payment of travel and maintenance.
The Unite union then accused Murphy of union-busting and organized protests and demonstrations targeting Murphy and his major business partners, customers and lenders. The London-based contractor rejected the allegations, saying it had acted because of an illegal strike.
The dispute has come to an end, with the workers rejecting the offer of reinstatement but agreeing to receive undisclosed compensation.
In a statement agreed by both parties, Murphy has confirmed that the conflict arising from the dismissal of the workers by the Irish subsidiary of the company has been resolved.
“The terms of the agreement are confidential, except that the parties have the right to say that after the rejection of reinstatement by the complainants, compensation has been paid by the respondent to the individuals,” he said.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the result had vindicated the union’s approach.
“Unite left no stone unturned to secure the claim of our members in Ireland who were sacked by the Murphy group of companies for what Unite believed to be bogus reasons,” he said.
In September, Graham called Murphy’s behavior “deplorable” and called the company “guilty of flagrant union-busting”.
However, Murphy hit back saying he “categorically refutes Unite’s misleading claims”, adding that the union’s account of layoffs – and the allegation of union busting – was “factually incorrect”.
In his September statement, Murphy added that he had acted in response to “unvoted, unnotified and therefore illegal” strike action by a small minority of workers.
