This article is from page 12 of the 2009-10-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
MOTORISTS can park for free in Ennis today as Clare County Council have suspended all the traffic war- dens working in the county capital.
Three traffic wardens and a super- visor were taken off the council’s payroll system last Friday following a long running dispute with the local authority. This action, which centres around the wardens’ security allow- ance, prompted the wardens to picket last night’s meeting of Clare County Sorrireek
‘Our member have been suspended so on foot of that we really have no
choice but to engage in industrial ac- tion,’ said Clare SIPTU spokesper- son, Tony Kenny.
“We issued notice of industrial ac- tion in August but we refrained from any industrial action at the time in the hope of engaging in discussions with Clare County Council.
‘That didn’t happen so we entered into a work to rule on September 11 and following a request from the council to withdraw from this so as to allow for meaningful engagement we dropped that on September 14.
“There was no engagement from Clare County Council over the next 14 days, all that happened was that at
the end of the 14 days we got a letter from the council saying that the posi- tion has not changed.”
According to the striking workers, the council has refused to engage with them or make any effort to work out the dispute.
“We are very very disappointed with the strong arm tactics being used by Clare County Council. We remain committed, as we always have been, to resolve this around the table. This is the only way in which this will be resolved,” continued Mr Keath
“We received a letter from Clare County Council today regretting
our strike action but that is the only communication which we have from detoye0 ea
The striking traffic wardens re- ceived a measure of support at last nights meeting of Clare County Council with one councillor pledg- ing to boycott future meeting unless the issue 1s resolved.
“I will most certianly not be pass- ing a picket if it is there next week. Despite the fact that they are war- dens, and many people would like to See them off the street, I will not be coming in here if that picket is still there next week,” said Gerry Flynn (IND).